Broken Oaths and Twin siblings
by Stay Peculiar
Summary: What happens when we recreate the Percy Jackson series but with an unknown twin sister? In the past she was close to Luke but when she comes back who's side will she choose. A loved one or her brother that had everything that she ever wanted. bad summary, please read anyway though. Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson. All rights go to Rick Riordan.
1. Chapter 1

**Sea of monsters**

In book page 192 onwards

Suddenly Annabeth's eyes widened. 'Percy.'  
I turned. Up ahead was another blotch of land-a saddle-shaped island with forested hills and white beaches and green meadows- just like I'd seen in my dreams.

My nautical senses confirmed it. Thirty degrees, thirty-one minutes north, seventy-five degrees, twelve minutes west.

We had reached the home of the cyclops.

 **14 We Meet The Sheep Of Doom.**

When you think "monster island", you think craggy rocks and bones scattered on the beach like the island of the Sirens.

The Cyclops's island was nothing like that. I mean, okay, it had a rope bridge across a chasm, which was not a good sign. You might as well put up a billboard that said, _something evil lives here_. But, except for that, the place looked like a Caribbean postcard. It had green fields and tropical fruit trees and white beaches. As we sailed towards the shore, Annabeth breathed in sweet air. 'The Fleece', she said.

I nodded. I couldn't see the Fleece yet, but I could feel its power. I could believe it would heal anything, even Thalia's poisoned tree. 'If we take it away, will the island die?'

Annabeth shook her head. 'It'll fade. Go to what it would be normally, whatever that is.'

I felt guilty about ruining this paradise, but I reminded myself we had no choice. Camp Half-Blood was in trouble. And Tyson…Tyson would still be with us if it wasn't for this quest.

In the meadow at the base of the ravine, several dozen sheep were milling around. They looked peaceful enough, but they were huge-the size of hippos. Just past them was a path that led up into the hills. At the top of the path, near the edge of the canyon, was a massive oak tree I'd seen in my dreams. Something gold glittered in its branches.

'This is too easy,' I said. 'We could just hike up there and take it.'

Annabeth's eyes narrowed. 'There's supposed to be a guardian. A dragon or…'

That's when a deer emerged from the bushes. It trotted into the meadow, probably looking for grass to  
eat, when the sheep all bleated at once and rushed the animal. It happened so fast that the deer  
stumbled and was lost in a sea of wool and trampling hooves.  
Grass and tufts of fur flew into the air.  
A second later the sheep all moved away, back to their regular peaceful wanderings. Where the deer  
had been was a pile of clean white bones.  
Annabeth and I exchanged looks.  
"They're like piranhas," she said.  
"Piranhas with wool. How will we—"  
"Percy!" Annabeth gasped, grabbing my arm. "Look."  
She pointed down the beach, to just below the sheep meadow, where a small boat had been run  
aground ... the other lifeboat from the CSS Birmingham.

We decided there was no way we could get past the man-eating sheep. Annabeth wanted to sneak up  
the path invisibility and grab the Fleece, but in the end, I convinced her that something would go wrong.  
The sheep would smell her. Another guardian would appear. Something. And if that happened, I'd be too  
far away to help.  
Besides, our first job was to find Grover and whoever had come ashore in that lifeboat—assuming  
they'd gotten past the sheep. I was too nervous to say what I was secretly hoping ... that Tyson might still  
be alive.  
We moored the Queen Anne's Revenge on the back side of the island where the cliffs rose straight up a  
good two hundred feet. I figured the ship was less likely to be seen there. The cliffs looked climbable,  
barely—about as difficult as the lava wall back at camp. At least it was free of sheep. I hoped that  
Polyphemus did not also keep carnivorous mountain goats.  
We rowed a lifeboat to the edge of the rocks and made our way up, very slowly. Annabeth went first  
because she was the better climber.  
We only came close to dying six or seven times, which I thought was pretty good. Once, I lost my grip  
and I found myself dangling by one hand from fifty feet above the rocky surf. But I found another  
handhold and kept climbing. A minute later Annabeth hit a slippery patch of moss and her foot slipped.  
Fortunately, she found something else to put it against. Unfortunately, that something was my face.  
"Sorry," she murmured.  
"S'okay," I grunted, though I'd never really wanted to know what Annabeth's sneaker tasted like.  
Finally, when my fingers felt like molten lead and my arm muscles were shaking from exhaustion, we  
hauled our-selves over the top of the cliff and collapsed.  
"Ugh," I said.  
"Ouch," moaned Annabeth.  
"Garrr!" bellowed another voice.  
If I hadn't been so tired, I would've leaped another two hundred feet. I whirled around, but I couldn't  
see who'd spoken.  
Annabeth clamped her hand over my mouth. She pointed.  
The ledge we were sitting on was narrower than I'd realized. It dropped off on the opposite side, and  
that's where the voice was coming from—right below us.  
"You're a feisty one!" the deep voice bellowed.  
"Challenge me!" Clarisse's voice, no doubt about it. "Give me back my sword and I'll fight you!"  
The monster roared with laughter.  
Annabeth and I crept to the edge. We were right above the entrance of the Cyclops's cave. Below us  
stood Polyphemus and Grover, still in his wedding dress. Clarisse was tied up, hanging upside down over  
a pot of boiling water. I was half hoping to see Tyson down there, too. Even if he'd been in danger, at  
least I would've known he was alive. But there was no sign of him.  
"Hmm," Polyphemus pondered. "Eat loudmouth girl now or wait for wedding feast? What does my bride  
think?"  
He turned to Grover, who backed up and almost tripped over his completed bridal train. "Oh, um, I'm  
not hungry right now, dear. Perhaps—"  
"Did you say bride?" Clarisse demanded. "Who— Grover?"  
Next to me, Annabeth muttered, "Shut up. She has to shut up."  
Polyphemus glowered. "What 'Grover'?"  
"The satyr!" Clarisse yelled.  
"Oh!" Grover yelped. "The poor thing's brain is boiling from that hot water. Pull her down, dear!"  
Polyphemus's eyelids narrowed over his baleful milky eye, as if he were trying to see Clarisse more  
clearly.  
The Cyclops was an even more horrible sight than he had been in my dreams. Partly because his rancid  
smell was now up close and personal. Partly because he was dressed in his wedding outfit—a crude kilt  
and shoulder-wrap, stitched together from baby-blue tuxedoes, as if he'd skinned an entire wedding  
party.  
"What satyr?" asked Polyphemus. "Satyrs are good eating. You bring me a satyr?"  
"No, you big idiot!" bellowed Clarisse. "That satyr! Grover! The one in the wedding dress!"  
I wanted to wring Clarisse's neck, but it was too late. All I could do was watch as Polyphemus turned  
and ripped off Grover's wedding veil—revealing his curly hair, his scruffy adolescent beard, his tiny  
horns.  
Polyphemus breathed heavily, trying to contain his anger. "I don't see very well," he growled. "Not since  
many years ago when the other hero stabbed me in eye. But YOU'RE— NO— LADY— CYCLOPS!"  
The Cyclops grabbed Grover's dress and tore it away. Underneath, the old Grover reappeared in his  
jeans and T-shirt. He yelped and ducked as the monster swiped over his head.  
"Stop!" Grover pleaded. "Don't eat me raw! I—I have a good recipe!"  
I reached for my sword, but Annabeth hissed, "Wait!"  
Polyphemus was hesitating, a boulder in his hand, ready to smash his would-be bride.  
"Recipe?" he asked Grover.  
"Oh y-yes! You don't want to eat me raw. You'll get E coli and botulism and all sorts of horrible things.  
I'll taste much better grilled over a slow fire. With mango chutney! You could go get some mangos right  
now, down there in the woods. I'll just wait here."  
The monster pondered this. My heart hammered against my ribs. I figured I'd die if I charged. But I  
couldn't let the monster kill Grover.  
"Grilled satyr with mango chutney," Polyphemus mused. He looked back at Clarisse, still hanging over  
the pot of boiling water. "You a satyr, too?"  
"No, you overgrown pile of dung!" she yelled. "I'm a girl! The daughter of Ares! Now untie me so I can  
rip your arms off!"  
"Rip my arms off," Polyphemus repeated.  
"And stuff them down your throat!"  
"You got spunk."  
"Let me down!"  
Polyphemus snatched up Grover as if he were a wayward puppy. "Have to graze sheep now. Wedding  
postponed until tonight. Then we'll eat satyr for the main course!"  
"But ... you're still getting married?" Grover sounded hurt. "Who's the bride?"  
Polyphemus looked toward the boiling pot.  
Clarisse made a strangled sound. "Oh, no! You can't be serious. I'm not—"  
Before Annabeth or I could do anything, Polyphemus plucked her off the rope like she was a ripe apple,  
and tossed her and Grover deep into the cave. "Make yourself comfortable! I come back at sundown for  
big event!"  
Then the Cyclops whistled, and a mixed flock of goats and sheep—smaller than the  
man-eaters—flooded out of the cave and past their master. As they went to pasture, Polyphemus patted  
some on the back and called them by name—Beltbuster, Tammany, Lockhart, etc.  
When the last sheep had waddled out, Polyphemus rolled a boulder in front of the doorway as easily as  
I would close a refrigerator door, shutting off the sound of Clarisse and Grover screaming inside.  
"Mangos," Polyphemus grumbled to himself. "What are mangos?"  
He strolled off down the mountain in his baby-blue groom's outfit, leaving us alone with a pot of boiling  
water and a six-ton boulder.

We tried for what seemed like hours, but it was no good. The boulder wouldn't move. We yelled into  
the cracks, tapped on the rock, did everything we could think of to get a signal to Grover, but if he heard  
us, we couldn't tell.  
Even if by some miracle we managed to kill Polyphemus, it wouldn't do us any good. Grover and  
Clarisse would die inside that sealed cave. The only way to move the rock was to have the Cyclops do  
it.  
In total frustration, I stabbed Riptide against the boulder. Sparks flew, but nothing else happened. A  
large rock is not the kind of enemy you can fight with a magic sword.  
Annabeth and I sat on the ridge in despair and watched the distant baby-blue shape of the Cyclops as  
he moved among his flocks. He had wisely divided his regular animals from his man-eating sheep, putting  
each group on either side of the huge crevice that divided the island. The only way across was the rope  
bridge, and the planks were much too far apart for sheep hooves.  
We watched as Polyphemus visited his carnivorous flock on the far side. Unfortunately, they didn't eat  
him. In fact, they didn't seem to bother him at all. He fed them chunks of mystery meat from a great  
wicker basket, which only reinforced the feelings I'd been having since Circe turned me into a guinea  
pig—that maybe it was time I joined Grover and became a vegetarian.  
"Trickery," Annabeth decided. "We can't beat him by force, so we'll have to use trickery."  
"Okay," I said. "What trick?'  
"I haven't figured that part out yet."  
"Great."  
"Polyphemus will have to move the rock to let the sheep inside."  
"At sunset," I said. "Which is when he'll marry Clarisse and have Grover for dinner. I'm not sure which is  
grosser."  
"I could get inside," she said, "invisibly."  
"What about me?"  
"The sheep," Annabeth mused. She gave me one of those sly looks that always made me wary. "How  
much do you like sheep?"

"Just don't let go!" Annabeth said, standing invisibly some-where off to my right. That was easy for her  
to say. She wasn't hanging upside down from the belly of a sheep.  
Now, I'll admit it wasn't as hard as I'd thought. I'd crawled under a car before to change my mom's oil,  
and this wasn't too different. The sheep didn't care. Even the Cyclops's smallest sheep were big enough  
to support my weight, and they had thick wool. I just twirled the stuff into handles for my hands, hooked  
my feet against the sheep's thigh bones, and presto—I felt like a baby wallaby, riding around against the  
sheep's chest, trying to keep the wool out of my mouth and my nose.  
In case you're wondering, the underside of a sheep doesn't smell that great. Imagine a winter sweater  
that's been dragged through the mud and left in the laundry hamper for a week. Something like that.  
The sun was going down.  
No sooner was I in position than the Cyclops roared, "Oy! Goaties! Sheepies!"  
The flock dutifully began trudging back up the slopes toward the cave.  
"This is it!" Annabeth whispered. "I'll be close by. Don't worry."  
I made a silent promise to the gods that if we survived this, I'd tell Annabeth she was a genius. The  
frightening thing was, I knew the gods would hold me to it.  
My sheep taxi started plodding up the hill. After a hundred yards, my hands and feet started to hurt  
from holding on. I gripped the sheep's wool more tightly, and the animal made a grumbling sound. I didn't  
blame it. I wouldn't want anybody rock climbing in my hair either. But if I didn't hold on, I was sure I'd  
fall off right there in front of the monster.  
"Hasenpfeffer!" the Cyclops said, patting one of the sheep in front of me. "Einstein! Widget—eh there,  
Widget!"  
Polyphemus patted my sheep and nearly knocked me to the ground. "Putting on some extra mutton  
there?"  
Uh-oh, I thought. Here it comes.  
But Polyphemus just laughed and swatted the sheep's rear end, propelling us forward. "Go on, fatty!  
Soon Polyphemus will eat you for breakfast!"  
And just like that, I was in the cave.  
I could see the last of the sheep coming inside. If Annabeth didn't pull off her distraction soon ...  
The Cyclops was about to roll the stone back into place, when from somewhere outside Annabeth  
shouted, "Hello, ugly!"  
Polyphemus stiffened. "Who said that?"  
"Nobody!" Annabeth yelled.  
That got exactly the reaction she'd been hoping for. The monster's face turned red with rage.  
"Nobody!" Polyphemus yelled back. "I remember you!"  
"You're too stupid to remember anybody," Annabeth taunted. "Much less Nobody."  
I hoped to the gods she was already moving when she said that, because Polyphemus bellowed  
furiously, grabbed the nearest boulder (which happened to be his front door) and threw it toward the  
sound of Annabeth's voice. I heard the rock smash into a thousand fragments.  
For a terrible moment, there was silence. Then Annabeth shouted, "You haven't learned to throw any  
better, either!"  
Polyphemus howled. "Come here! Let me kill you, Nobody!"  
"You can't kill Nobody, you stupid oaf," she taunted. "Come find me!"  
Polyphemus barreled down the hill toward her voice.  
Now, the "Nobody" thing wouldn't have made sense to anybody, but Annabeth had explained to me that  
it was the name Odysseus had used to trick Polyphemus centuries ago, right before he poked the  
Cyclops's eye out with a large hot stick. Annabeth had figured Polyphemus would still have a grudge  
about that name, and she was right. In his frenzy to find his old enemy, he forgot about resealing the cave  
entrance. Apparently, he didn't even stop to consider that Annabeth's voice was female, whereas the first  
Nobody had been male. On the other hand, he'd wanted to marry Grover, so he couldn't have been all  
that bright about the whole male/female thing.  
I just hoped Annabeth could stay alive and keep distracting him long enough for me to find Grover and  
Clarisse.  
I dropped off my ride, patted Widget on the head, and apologized. I searched the main room, but there  
was no sign of Grover or Clarisse. I pushed through the crowd of sheep and goats toward the back of  
the cave.  
Even though I'd dreamed about this place, I had a hard time finding my way through the maze. I ran  
down corridors littered with bones, past rooms full of sheepskin rugs and life-size cement sheep that I  
recognized as the work of Medusa. I stopped at a room and saw a girl around my age with raven black hair and sea green eyes filled with hate, frustration and anger. I stared at her In complete silence until she rolled her eyes at me and said, 'Are you going to stare at me or are you going to help get me out of these chains.

I hesitated, wary at first before I decided that she was a fellow demigod in need of help and used riptide to cut her loose. The only thank you I got was 'nice sword', but that's just how it is in demigod world. She followed me down a corridor where we found collections of sheep T-shirts; large tubs of lanolin cream;  
and wooly coats, socks, and hats with ram's horns. Finally, we found the spinning room, where Grover was huddled in the corner, trying to cut Clarisse's bonds with a pair of safety scissors.  
"It's no good," Clarisse said. "This rope is like iron!"  
"Just a few more minutes!"  
"Grover," she cried, exasperated. "You've been working at it for hours!"  
And then they saw me.  
"Percy?" Clarisse said. "You're supposed to be blown up!"  
"Good to see you, too. Now hold still while I—"  
"Perrrrrcy!" Grover bleated and tackled me with a goat-hug. "You heard me! You came!"  
"Yeah, buddy," I said. "Of course I came."  
"Where's Annabeth?"  
"Outside," I said. "But there's no time to talk. Clarisse, hold still."  
"Lara?" Grover seemed to be staring at the girl now known as Lara in pure shock.  
"Yeah I'm alive. Why are you guys here?" Judging by the look on her face, our expressions must have created a solemn atmosphere.  
I decided to be the first to tell her, "Luke poisoned Thalia's tree. We came for the fleece."  
"Son of a bitch!" she exclaimed. "I pacifically told him not to. We could bring Thalia back without poisoning her. We didn't need to persuade Chiron to give us a quest. This isn't what should have happened. If that Cyclops hadn't smashed my boat, Thalia would be alive right now and none of this would have happened." I decided to stop her there.  
"What do you mean Thalia would be alive now?"  
"You guys don't know? The fleece won't just cure her from the poison, but would bring her back to human form. Luke told me the day that she died that if we got a quest the golden fleece would bring her back. I told him that it was mad and that Chiron would never allow it. He said that he would poison Thalia's tree and then he'd get a quest. I told him that it was ridiculous and that to even consider putting Thalia in harm's way again was malicious. He wouldn't budge. He was serious. I told him that we didn't need a quest and on the next day I sneaked out of camp and you know the rest." She waited for us to take this all in.  
"Why did he wait to poison her now then?" I asked.  
"Because he wants to use Thalia as his advantage with one of the children of the Big three." Grover answered.  
"Why would he need her though?" Lara asked.  
"Kronos has raised and the Great prophecy has begun." I answered.  
Ignoring us all, Clarise asked me to cut her loose. I uncapped Riptide and sliced off her ropes. She stood stiffly, rubbing her wrists. She glared at me for a  
moment, then looked at the ground and mumbled, "Thanks."  
"You're welcome," I said. "Now, was anyone else on board your lifeboat?"  
Clarisse looked surprised. "No. Just me. Everybody else aboard the Birmingham ... well, I didn't even  
know you guys made it out."  
I looked down, trying not to believe that my last hope of seeing Tyson alive had just been crushed.  
"Okay. Come on, then. We have to help—"  
An explosion echoed through the cave, followed by a scream that told me we might be too late. It was  
Annabeth crying out in fear.


	2. Chapter 2

**Just to make sure that nobody gets confused about this but I have changed Katlien's name to Lara. Don't ask why, just have. I wanted to make my story more original than other twin stories so I have decided to try to make you guess who his sister is. Please review.**

"I got Nobody!" Polyphemus gloated.  
We crept to the cave entrance and saw the Cyclops, grinning wickedly, holding up empty air. The  
monster shook his fist, and a baseball cap fluttered to the ground. There was Annabeth, hanging upside  
down by her legs.  
"Hah!" the Cyclops said. "Nasty invisible girl! Already got feisty one for wife. Means you got to be grilled  
with mango chutney!"  
Annabeth struggled, but she looked dazed. She had a nasty cut on her forehead. Her eyes were glassy.  
"I'll rush him," I whispered to Clarisse and Lara. "Our ship is around the back of the island. You and Grover—"  
"No way," they said at the same time. Clarisse had armed herself with a highly collectible rams-horn  
spear from the Cyclops's cave. Lara had pulled on a certain charm on her charm bracelet that had turned into a long celestial bronze sword and Grover had found a sheep's thigh bone, which he didn't look very happy about, but he was gripping it like a club, ready to attack.  
"We'll take him together," Clarisse growled.  
"Yeah," Grover said. Then he blinked, like he couldn't believe he'd just agreed with Clarisse about  
something.  
"All right," I said. "Attack plan Macedonia."  
They nodded. We'd all taken the same training courses at Camp Half-Blood. They knew what I was  
talking about. They would sneak around either side and attack the Cyclops from the flanks while I held  
his attention in the front. Probably what this meant was that we'd all die instead of just me, but I was  
grateful for the help.  
I hefted my sword and shouted, "Hey, Ugly!"  
The giant whirled toward me. "Another one? Who are you?"  
"Put down my friend. I'm the one who insulted you."  
"You are Nobody?"  
"That's right, your smelly bucket of nose drool!" It didn't sound quite as good as Annabeth's insults, but it was all I could think of. "I'm Nobody and I'm proud of it! Now, put her down and get over here. I want  
to stab your eye out again."  
"RAAAR!" he bellowed.  
The good news: he dropped Annabeth. The bad news: he dropped her headfirst onto the rocks, where  
she lay motionless as a rag doll.  
The other bad news: Polyphemus barreled toward me, a thousand smelly pounds of Cyclops that I  
would have to fight with a very small sword.  
"For Pan!" Grover rushed in from the right. He threw his sheep bone, which bounced harmlessly off the  
monster's forehead. Clarisse ran in from the left and set her spear against the ground just in time for the  
Cyclops to step on it. He wailed in pain, and Clarisse dove out of the way to avoid getting trampled. But  
the Cyclops just plucked out the shaft like a large splinter and kept advancing on me.  
I moved in with Riptide.  
The monster made a grab for me. I rolled aside and stabbed him in the thigh.  
I was hoping to see him disintegrate, but this monster was much too big and powerful.  
"Get Annabeth!" I yelled at Grover.  
He rushed over, grabbed her invisibility cap, and picked her up while Clarisse, Lara and I tried to keep  
Polyphemus distracted.  
I must admit, Clarisse was brave. She charged the Cyclops again and again. He pounded the ground,  
stomped at her, grabbed at her, but she was too quick. And as soon as she made an attack, I followed  
up by stabbing the monster in the toe or the ankle or the hand.  
But we couldn't keep this up forever. Eventually we would tire or the monster would get in a lucky shot.  
It would only take one hit to kill us.  
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Grover carrying Annabeth across the rope bridge. It wouldn't have  
been my first choice, given the man-eating sheep on the other side, but now that looked better  
than this side of the chasm, and it gave me an idea.  
"Fall back!" I told Clarisse and Lara.  
She rolled away as the Cyclops's fist smashed the olive tree beside her.  
We ran for the bridge, Polyphemus right behind us. He was cut up and hobbling from so many wounds,  
but allowed done was slow him down and make him mad.  
"Grind you into sheep chow!" he promised. "A thousand curses on Nobody!"  
"Faster!" I told them.  
We tore down the hill. The bridge was our only chance. Grover had just made it to the other side and  
was setting Annabeth down. We had to make it across, too, before the giant caught us.  
"Grover!" I yelled. "Get Annabeth's knife!"  
His eyes widened when he saw the Cyclops behind us, but he nodded like he understood. As we scrambled across the bridge, Grover began sawing at the ropes.  
The first strand went snap! Polyphemus bounded after us, making the bridge sway wildly.  
The ropes were now half cut. Clarisse and I dove for solid ground, landing beside Grover. I made a wild  
slash with my sword and cut the remaining ropes.  
The bridge fell away into the chasm, and the Cyclops howled ... with delight, because he was standing  
right next to us.  
"Failed!" he yelled gleefully. "Nobody failed!"  
Clarisse and Grover tried to charge him, but the monster swatted them aside like flies.  
My anger swelled. I couldn't believe I'd come this far, lost Tyson, suffered through so much, only to  
fail—stopped by a big stupid monster in a baby-blue tuxedo kilt. Nobody was going to swat down my  
friends like that! I mean ... nobody, not Nobody. Ah, you know what I mean.  
Strength coursed through my body. I raised my sword and attacked, forgetting that I was hopelessly  
outmatched. I jabbed the Cyclops in the belly. When he doubled over I smacked him in the nose with the  
hilt of my sword. Lara slashed and kicked and bashed until the next thing I knew, Polyphemus was sprawled on his back, dazed and groaning, and I was standing above him, the tip of my sword hovering over his eye.  
"Uhhhhhhhh," Polyphemus moaned.  
"Percy!" Grover gasped. "How did you—"  
"Please, noooo!" the Cyclops moaned, pitifully staring up at me. His nose was bleeding. A tear welled in  
the corner of his half-blind eye. "M-m-my sheepies need me. Only trying to protect my sheep!"  
He began to sob.  
I had won. All I had to do was stab—one quick strike.  
"Kill him!" Clarisse yelled. "What are you waiting for?"  
The Cyclops sounded so heartbroken, just like ... like Tyson.  
"He's a Cyclops!" Grover warned. "Don't trust him!"  
I knew he was right. I knew Annabeth would've said the same thing.  
But Polyphemus sobbed ... and for the first time it sank in that he was a son of Poseidon, too. Like  
Tyson. Like me. How could I just kill him in cold blood?  
"We only want the Fleece," I told the monster. "Will you agree to let us take it?"  
"No!" Clarisse shouted. "Kill him!"  
The monster sniffed. "My beautiful Fleece. Prize of my collection. Take it, cruel human. Take it and go in  
peace."  
"I'm going to step back slowly," I told the monster. "One false move ..."  
But before I could finish Lara stabbed him in the heart. He disintegrated almost immediately.  
"Why the fuck would you do that?" I exclaimed. How dare she? This was not her battle and it certainly wasn't her war.  
"Because you're an idiot and as soon as you stepped back he would have hammered you right off the edge of that cliff." Before I could come up with a snappy insult I heard something collapse behind me.

I turned.  
Halfway down the path to the beach, standing completely unharmed in the midst of a flock of killer  
sheep, was an old friend.  
"Bad Polyphemus," Tyson said. "Not all Cyclopes as nice as we look."  
Tyson gave us the short version: Rainbow the hippocampus—who'd apparently been following us ever  
since the Long Island Sound, waiting for Tyson to play with him—had found Tyson sinking beneath the  
wreckage of the CSS Birmingham and pulled him to safety. He and Tyson had been searching the Sea of  
Monsters ever since, trying to find us, until Tyson caught the scent of sheep and found this island.  
I wanted to hug the big oaf, except he was standing in the middle of killer sheep. "Tyson, thank the gods. Annabeth is hurt!"  
"You thank the gods she is hurt?" he asked, puzzled.  
"No!" I knelt beside Annabeth and was worried sick by what I saw. The gash on her forehead was  
worse than I'd realized. Her hairline was sticky with blood. Her skin was pale and clammy.  
Grover and I exchanged nervous looks. Then an idea came to me. "Tyson, the Fleece. Can you get it for  
me?"  
"Which one?" Tyson said, looking around at the hundreds of sheep.  
"In the tree!" I said. "The gold one!"  
"Oh. Pretty. Yes."  
Tyson lumbered over, careful not to step on the sheep. If any of us had tried to approach the Fleece, we  
would've been eaten alive, but I guess Tyson smelled like Polyphemus, because the flock didn't bother  
him at all. They just cuddled up to him and bleated affectionately, as though they expected to get sheep  
treats from the big wicker basket. Tyson reached up and lifted the Fleece off its branch. Immediately the  
leaves on the oak tree turned yellow. Tyson started wading back toward me, but I yelled, "No time!  
Throw it!"  
The gold ram skin sailed through the air like a glittering shag Frisbee. I caught it with a grunt. It was  
heavier than I'd expected—sixty or seventy pounds of precious gold wool.  
I spread it over Annabeth, covering everything but her face, and prayed silently to all the gods I could  
think of, even the ones I didn't like.  
Please. Please.  
The color returned to her face. Her eyelids fluttered open. The cut on her forehead began to close. She  
saw Grover and said weakly, "You're not... married?"  
Grover grinned. "No. My friends talked me out of it."  
"Lara, is that you?"  
"No time for explanations but yeah, it's me."  
"Annabeth," I said, "just lay still."  
But despite our protests she sat up, and I noticed that the cut on her face was almost completely healed.  
She looked a lot better. In fact, she shimmered with health, as if someone had injected her with glitter.  
Meanwhile, Tyson was starting to have trouble with the sheep. "Down!" he told them as they tried to  
climb him, looking for food. A few were sniffing in our direction. "No, sheepies. This way! Come here!"  
They heeded him, but it was obvious they were hungry, and they were starting to realize Tyson didn't  
have any treats for them. They wouldn't hold out forever with so much fresh meat nearby.  
"We have to go," I said. "Our ship is..." The Queen Anne's Revenge was a very long way away. The  
shortest route was across the chasm, and we'd just destroyed the only bridge. The only other possibility  
was through the sheep.  
"Tyson," I called, "can you lead the flock as far away as possible?"  
"The sheep want food."  
"I know! They want people food! Just lead them away from the path. Give us time to get to the beach.  
Then join us there."  
Tyson looked doubtful, but he whistled. "Come, sheepies! Um, people food this way!"  
He jogged off into the meadow, the sheep in pursuit.  
"Keep the Fleece around you," I told Annabeth. "Just in case you're not fully healed yet. Can you  
stand?"  
She tried, but her face turned pale again. "Ohh. Not fully healed."  
Clarisse dropped next to her and felt her chest, which made Annabeth gasp.  
"Ribs broken," Clarisse said. "They're mending, but definitely broken."  
"How can you tell?" I asked.  
Clarisse glared at me. "Because I've broken a few, runt! I'll have to carry her."  
Before I could argue, Clarisse picked up Annabeth like a sack of flour and lugged her down to the  
beach. Grover, Lara and I followed.  
As soon as we got to the edge of the water, I concentrated on the Queen Anne's Revenge. I willed it to  
raise anchor and come to me. After a few anxious minutes, I saw the ship rounding the tip of the island.  
"Incoming!" Tyson yelled. He was bounding down the path to join us, the sheep about fifty yards behind, bleating in frustration as their Cyclops friend ran away without feeding them.  
"They probably won't follow us into the water," I told the others. "All we have to do is swim for the  
ship."  
"With Annabeth like this?" Clarisse protested.  
"We can do it," I insisted. I was starting to feel confident again. I was back in my home turf—the sea.  
"Once we get to the ship, we're home free."  
We almost made it, too but the sheep were gaining on us and seemed to not care too much about the water. I summoned up a current that would lead us to the ship and hoped that it would be enough.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

 **Sorry to say that in the book this isn't a long chapter so will have to add another chapter to it.**

"Swim for it!" Grover said.  
He and Clarisse plunged into the surf. Annabeth hung on to Clarisse's neck and tried to paddle with one  
hand, the wet Fleece weighing her down.  
But the monster's attention wasn't on the Fleece.  
"Percy!" Clarisse yelled. "Come on!"  
They were almost to the ship with the fleece.  
Grover was helping Annabeth aboard the ship. Clarisse was waving frantically at me, telling me to come  
on. Tyson and I plunged into the waves.  
I summoned up a current to carry us, and we started gaining speed. I was beginning to think we might  
make it to the ship, when Clarisse shouted from the deck, "Yeah, Jackson! In your face, sheep!"  
Shut up, I wanted to yell. Focus on the ship. It was steering helplessly into a bunch of jagged rocks. Lara was failing miserably trying to steer the ship away and Clarisse and her big mouth weren't exactly helping. You wouldn't believe how fast a ship can sink. The Queen Anne's Revenge creaked and groaned and listed forward like it was going down a playground slide.  
I cursed, willing the sea to push us faster, but the ship's masts were already going under.  
"Dive!" I told Tyson. And as another rock sailed over our heads, we plunged underwater.

My friends were sinking fast, trying to swim, without luck, in the bubbly trail of the ship's wreckage.  
Not many people realize that when a ship goes down, it acts like a sinkhole, pulling down everything  
around it. Clarisse was a strong swimmer, but even she wasn't making any progress. Grover frantically  
kicked with his hooves. Annabeth was hanging on to the Fleece, which flashed in the water like a wave  
of new pennies. Lara seemed to be doing surprisingly well but was too focused on getting to Annabeth to make much progress.  
I swam toward them, knowing that I might not have the strength to pull my friends out. Worse, pieces of  
timber were swirling around them; none of my power with water would help if I got whacked on the head  
by a beam.  
We need help, I thought.  
Yes. Tyson's voice, loud and clear in my head.  
I looked over at him, startled. I'd heard Nereids and other water spirits speak to me underwater before,  
but it never occurred to me ... Tyson was a son of Poseidon. We could communicate with each other.  
Rainbow,Tyson said.  
I nodded, then closed my eyes and concentrated, adding my voice to Tyson's: RAINBOW! We need  
you!  
Immediately, shapes shimmered in the darkness below—three horses with fish tails, galloping upward  
faster than dolphins. Rainbow and his friends glanced in our direction and seemed to read our thoughts.  
They whisked into the wreckage, and a moment later burst upward in a cloud of bubbles—Grover,  
Annabeth, and Clarisse each clinging to the neck of a hippocampus. Lara realized that Annabeth would make it out okay without her help and swam easily in my direction.  
Rainbow, the largest, had Clarisse. He raced over to us and allowed Tyson to grab hold of his mane.  
His friend who bore Annabeth did the same for me.  
We broke the surface of the water and raced away from Polyphemus's island.  
We skimmed across the sea as the island shrank to a dot and then disappeared.  
"Did it," Annabeth muttered in exhaustion. "We ..."  
She slumped against the neck of the hippocampus and instantly fell asleep.  
I didn't know how far the hippocampi could take us. I didn't know where we were going. I just propped  
up Annabeth so she wouldn't fall off, covered her in the Golden Fleece that we'd been through so much  
to get, and said a silent prayer of thanks.  
Which reminded me ... I still owed the gods a debt.  
"You're a genius," I told Annabeth quietly.  
Then I put my head against the Fleece, and before I knew it, I was asleep, too.

"Percy, wake up."  
Salt water splashed my face. Annabeth was shaking my shoulder.  
In the distance, the sun was setting behind a city skyline. I could see a beachside highway lined with  
palm trees, store-fronts glowing with red and blue neon, a harbor filled with sailboats and cruise ships.  
"Miami, I think," Annabeth said. "But the hippocampi are acting funny."  
Sure enough, our fishy friends had slowed down and were whinnying and swimming in circles, sniffing  
the water. They didn't look happy. One of them sneezed. I could tell what they were thinking.  
"This is as far as they'll take us," I said. "Too many humans. Too much pollution. We'll have to swim to  
shore on our own."  
None of us was very psyched about that, but we thanked Rainbow and his friends for the ride. Tyson  
cried a little. He unfastened the makeshift saddle pack he'd made, which contained his tool kit and a  
couple of other things he'd salvaged from the Birmingham wreck. He hugged Rainbow around the neck,  
gave him a soggy mango he'd picked up on the island, and said goodbye.  
Once the hippocampi's white manes disappeared into the sea, we swam for shore. The waves pushed us  
forward, and in no time, we were back in the mortal world. We wandered along the cruise line docks,  
pushing through crowds of people arriving for vacations. Porters bustled around with carts of luggage.  
Taxi drivers yelled at each other in Spanish and tried to cut in line for customers. If anybody noticed  
us—five kids dripping wet and looking like they'd just had a fight with a monster—they didn't let on.  
Now that we were back among mortals, Tyson's single eye had blurred from the Mist. Grover had put  
on his cap and sneakers. Even the Fleece had transformed from a sheepskin to a red-and-gold high  
school letter jacket with a large glittery Omega on the pocket.  
Annabeth ran to the nearest newspaper box and checked the date on the Miami Herald. She cursed.  
"June eighteenth! We've been away from camp ten days!"  
"That's impossible!" Clarisse said.  
But I knew it wasn't. Time traveled differently in monstrous places.  
"Thalia's tree must be almost dead," Grover wailed. "We have to get the Fleece back tonight."  
Clarisse slumped down on the pavement. "How are we supposed to do that?" Her voice trembled.  
"We're hundreds of miles away. No money. No ride. This is just like the Oracle said. It's your fault,  
Jackson! If you hadn't interfered—"  
"Percy's fault?!" Annabeth exploded. "Clarisse, how can you say that? You are the biggest—"  
"Stop it!" I said.  
Clarisse put her head in hands. Annabeth stomped her foot in frustration.  
The thing was: I'd almost forgotten this quest was supposed to be Clarisse's. For a scary moment, I  
saw things from her point of view. How would I feel if a bunch of other heroes had butted in and made  
me look bad?  
I thought about what I'd overheard in the boiler room of the CSS Birmingham —Ares yelling at  
Clarisse, warning her that she'd better not fail. Ares couldn't care less about the camp, but if Clarisse  
made him look bad ...  
"Clarisse," I said, "what did the Oracle tell you exactly?"  
She looked up. I thought she was going to tell me off, but instead she took a deep breath and recited her  
prophecy:

"You shall sail the iron ship with warriors of bone,  
You shall find what you seek and make it your own,  
But despair for your life entombed within stone,  
And fail without friends, to fly home alone."  
"Ouch," Grover mumbled.  
"No," I said. "No ... wait a minute. I've got it."  
I searched my pockets for money, and found nothing but a golden drachma. "Does anybody have any  
cash?"  
Annabeth and Grover shook their heads morosely. Clarisse pulled a wet Confederate dollar from her  
pocket and sighed.  
"Cash?" Tyson asked hesitantly. "Like ... green paper?"  
I looked at him. "Yeah."  
"Like the kind in duffel bags?"  
"Yeah, but we lost those bags days a-g-g—"  
I stuttered to a halt as Tyson rummaged in his saddle pack and pulled out the Ziploc bag full of cash that  
Hermes had included in our supplies.  
"Tyson!" I said. "How did you—"  
"Thought it was a feed bag for Rainbow," he said. "Found it floating in sea, but only paper inside. Sorry."  
He handed me the cash. Fives and tens, at least three hundred dollars.  
I ran to the curb and grabbed a taxi that was just letting out a family of cruise passengers. "Clarisse," I  
yelled. "Come on. You're going to the airport. Annabeth, give her the Fleece."  
I'm not sure which of them looked more stunned as I took the Fleece letter jacket from Annabeth,  
tucked the cash into its pocket, and put it in Clarisse's arms.  
Clarisse said, "You'd let me—"  
"It's your quest," I said. "We only have enough money for one flight. Besides, I can't travel by air. Zeus  
would blast me into a million pieces. That's what the prophecy meant: you'd fail without friends, meaning  
you'd need our help, but you'd have to fly home alone. You have to get the Fleece back safely."  
I could see her mind working—suspicious at first, wondering what trick I was playing, then finally  
deciding I meant what I said.  
She jumped in the cab. "You can count on me. I won't fail."  
"Not failing would be good."  
The cab peeled out in a cloud of exhaust. The Fleece was on its way.  
"Percy," Annabeth said, "that was so—"  
"Generous?" Grover offered.  
"Insane," Annabeth corrected. "You're betting the lives of everybody at camp that Clarisse will get the  
Fleece safely back by tonight?"  
"It's her quest," I said. "She deserves a chance."  
"Percy is nice," Tyson said.  
"Percy is too nice," Annabeth grumbled, but I couldn't help thinking that maybe, just maybe, she was a  
little impressed. I'd surprised her, anyway. And that wasn't easy to do. Lara seemed quiet. I watched her deep in thought and could tell that she didn't find camp the most thrilling idea at the moment. She knew that the fleece would be safely returned and that Thalia would be okay but I could see that Thalia was the only thing that could keep her at camp.  
"Come on," I told my friends. "Let's find another way home."  
That's when I turned and found a sword's point at my throat.  
"Hey, cuz," said Luke. "Welcome back to the States."  
His bear-man thugs appeared on either of side of us. One grabbed Annabeth and Grover by their T-shirt  
collars. The other tried to grab Tyson, but Tyson knocked him into a pile of luggage and roared at Luke.  
"Percy," Luke said calmly, "tell your giant to back down or I'll have Oreius bash your friends' heads  
together."  
Oreius grinned and raised Annabeth and Grover off the ground, kicking and screaming.  
"What do you want, Luke?" I growled.  
He smiled, the scar rippling on the side of his face.  
He gestured toward the end of the dock, and I noticed what should've been obvious. The biggest boat in  
port was the Princess Andromeda.  
"Why, Percy," Luke said, "I want to extend my hospitality, of course."

The bear twins herded us aboard the Princess Andromeda. They threw us down on the aft deck in front  
of a swimming pool with sparkling fountains that sprayed into the air. A dozen of Luke's assorted  
goons—snake people, Laistrygonians, demigods in battle armor—had gathered to watch us get some  
"hospitality."  
"And so, the Fleece," Luke mused. "Where is it?" He looked us over, prodding my shirt with the tip of  
his sword, poking Grover's jeans.  
"Hey!" Grover yelled. "That's real goat fur under there!"  
"Sorry, old friend." Luke smiled. "Just give me the Fleece and I'll leave you to return to your, ah, little  
nature quest."  
"Blaa-ha-ha!" Grover protested. "Some old friend!"  
"Maybe you didn't hear me." Luke's voice was dangerously calm. "Where—is—the—Fleece?"  
"Not here," I said. I probably shouldn't have told him anything, but it felt good to throw the truth in his  
face. "We sent it on ahead of us. You messed up."  
Luke's eyes narrowed. "You're lying. You couldn't have ..." His face reddened as a horrible possibility  
occurred to him. "Clarisse?"  
I nodded.  
"You trusted ... you gave ..."  
"Yeah."  
"Agrius!"  
The bear giant flinched. "Y-yes?"  
"Get below and prepare my steed. Bring it to the deck. I need to fly to the Miami Airport, fast.'"  
"But, boss—"  
"Do it!" Luke screamed. "Or I'll feed you to the drakon!"  
But before Agrius could go below-deck, with one swift and mighty punch, Lara knocked him out. Luke growled at her and sent a demigod to finish the job.  
The demigod gulped and lumbered down the stairs. Luke paced in front of the swimming pool, cursing  
in Ancient Greek, gripping his sword so tight his knuckles turned white.  
The rest of Luke's crew looked uneasy. Maybe they'd never seen their boss so unhinged before.  
I started thinking ... If I could use Luke's anger, get him to talk so everybody could hear how crazy his  
plans were ...  
I looked at the swimming pool, at the fountains spraying mist into the air, making a rainbow in the  
sunset. And suddenly I had an idea.  
"You've been toying with us all along," I said. "You wanted us to bring you the Fleece and save you the  
trouble of getting it."  
Luke scowled. "Of course, you idiot! And you've messed everything up!"  
"Traitor!" I dug my last gold drachma out of my pocket and threw it at Luke. As I expected, he dodged  
it easily.  
The coin sailed into the spray of rainbow-colored water.  
I hoped my prayer would be accepted in silence. I thought with all my heart: O goddess, accept my  
offering. "You tricked all of us!" I yelled at Luke. "Even DIONYSUS at CAMP HALF-BLOOD!"  
Behind Luke, the fountain began to shimmer, but I needed everyone's attention on me, so I uncapped  
Riptide.  
Luke just sneered. "This is no time for heroics, Percy. Drop your puny little sword, or I'll have you killed  
sooner rather than later."  
"Who poisoned Thalia's tree, Luke?"  
"I did, of course," he snarled. "I already told you that. I used elder python venom, straight from the  
depths of Tartarus."  
"Chiron had nothing to do with it?"  
"Ha! You know he would never do that. The old fool wouldn't have the guts."  
"You call it guts? Betraying your friends? Endangering the whole camp?"  
Luke raised his sword. "You don't understand the half of it. I was going to let you take the Fleece ...  
once I was done with it."  
That made me hesitate. Why would he let me take the Fleece? He must've been lying. But I couldn't  
afford to lose his attention.  
"You were going to heal Kronos," I said.  
"Yes! The Fleece's magic would've sped his mending process by tenfold. But you haven't stopped us,  
Percy. You've only slowed us down a little."  
"And so you poisoned the tree, you betrayed Thalia, you set us up—all to help Kronos destroy the  
gods."  
Luke gritted his teeth. "You know that! Why do you keep asking me?"  
"Because I want everybody in the audience to hear you."  
" What audience?"  
Then his eyes narrowed. He looked behind him and his goons did the same. They gasped and stumbled  
back.  
Above the pool, shimmering in the rainbow mist, was an Iris-message vision of Dionysus, Tantalus, and  
the whole camp in the dining pavilion. They sat in stunned silence, watching us.  
"Well," said Dionysus dryly, "some unplanned dinner entertainment."  
"Mr. D, you heard him," I said. "You all heard Luke. The poisoning of the tree wasn't Chiron's fault."  
Mr. D sighed. "I suppose not."  
"The Iris-message could be a trick," Tantalus suggested, but his attention was mostly on his  
cheeseburger, which he was trying to corner with both hands.  
"I fear not," Mr. D said, looking with distaste at Tantalus. "It appears I shall have to reinstate Chiron as  
activities director. I suppose I do miss the old horse's pinochle games."  
Tantalus grabbed the cheeseburger. It didn't bolt away from him. He lifted it from the plate and stared at  
it in amazement, as if it were the largest diamond in the world. "I got it!" he cackled.  
"We are no longer in need of your services, Tantalus," Mr. D announced.  
Tantalus looked stunned. "What? But—"  
"You may return to the Underworld. You are dismissed."  
"No! But—Nooooooooooooo!"  
As he dissolved into mist, his fingers clutched at the cheeseburger, trying to bring it to his mouth. But it  
was too late. He disappeared and the cheeseburger fell back onto its plate. The campers exploded into  
cheering.  
Luke bellowed with rage. He slashed his sword through the fountain and the Iris-message dissolved, but  
the deed was done.  
I was feeling pretty good about myself, until Luke turned and gave me a murderous look.  
"Kronos was right, Percy. You're an unreliable weapon. You need to be replaced."  
I wasn't sure what he meant, but I didn't have time to think about it. One of his men blew a brass whistle,  
and the deck doors flew open. A dozen more warriors poured out, making a circle around us, the brass  
tips of their spears bristling.  
Luke smiled at me. "You'll never leave this boat alive."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

"One on one," I challenged Luke. "What are you afraid of?"  
Luke curled his lip. The soldiers who were about to kill us hesitated, waiting for his order.  
Before he could say anything, the demigod that he had sent out earlier, burst onto the deck leading a flying horse. It was the first pure-black pegasus I'd ever seen, with wings like a giant raven. The Pegasus mare bucked and whinnied. I could understand her thoughts. She was calling the demigod and Luke some names so bad Chiron would've washed her muzzle out with saddle soap.  
"Sir!" the demigod called, dodging a Pegasus hoof. "Your steed is ready!"  
Luke kept his eyes on me.  
"I told you last summer, Percy," he said. "You can't bait me into a fight."  
"And you keep avoiding one," I noticed. "Scared your warriors will see you get whipped?"  
Luke glanced at his men, and he saw I'd trapped him. If he backed down now, he would look weak. If  
he fought me, he'd lose valuable time chasing after Clarisse. For my part, the best I could hope for was to  
distract him, giving my friends a chance to escape. If anybody could think of a plan to get them out of  
there, Annabeth could. On the down-side, I knew how good Luke was at sword-fighting.  
"I'll kill you quickly," he decided, and raised his weapon. Backbiter was a foot longer than my own  
sword. Its blade glinted with an evil gray-and-gold light where the human steel had been melded with  
celestial bronze. I could almost feel the blade fighting against itself, like two opposing magnets bound  
together. I didn't know how the blade had been made, but I sensed a tragedy. Someone had died in the  
process. Luke whistled to one of his men, who threw him a round leather-and-bronze shield.  
He grinned at me wickedly.  
"Luke," Annabeth said, "at least give him a shield."  
"Sorry, Annabeth," he said. "You bring your own equipment to this party."  
The shield was a problem. Fighting two-handed with just a sword gives you more power, but fighting  
one-handed with a shield gives you better defense and versatility. There are more moves, more options,  
more ways to kill. I thought back to Chiron, who'd told me to stay at camp no matter what, and learn to  
fight. Now I was going to pay for not listening to him.  
Luke lunged and almost killed me on the first try. His sword went under my arm, slashing through my  
shirt and grazing my ribs.  
I jumped back, then counterattacked with Riptide, but Luke slammed my blade away with his shield.  
"My, Percy," Luke chided. "You're out of practice."  
He came at me again with a swipe to the head. I parried, returned with a thrust. He sidestepped easily.  
The cut on my ribs stung. My heart was racing. When Luke lunged again, I jumped backward into the  
swimming pool and felt a surge of strength. I spun underwater, creating a funnel cloud, and blasted out of  
the deep end, straight at Luke's face.  
The force of the water knocked him down, spluttering and blinded. But before I could strike, he rolled  
aside and was on his feet again.  
I attacked and sliced off the edge of his shield, but that didn't even faze him. He dropped to a crouch  
and jabbed at my legs. Suddenly my thigh was on fire, with a pain so intense I collapsed. My jeans were  
ripped above the knee. I was hurt. I didn't know how badly. Luke hacked downward and I rolled behind  
a deck chair. I tried to stand, but my leg wouldn't take the weight.  
"Perrrrrcy!" Grover bleated.  
I rolled again as Luke's sword slashed the deck chair in half, metal pipes and all.  
I clawed toward the swimming pool, trying hard not to black out. I'd never make it. Luke knew it, too.  
He advanced slowly, smiling. The edge of his sword was tinged with red.  
"One thing I want you to watch before you die, Percy." He looked at the bear-man Oreius, who was still  
holding Annabeth and Grover by the necks. "You can eat your dinner now, Oreius. Bon appetite."  
"He-he! He-he!" The bear-man lifted my friends and bared his teeth.  
That's when all Hades broke loose.  
Whish!  
A red-feathered arrow sprouted from Oreius's mouth. With a surprised look on his hairy face, he  
crumpled to the deck.  
The demigod let the Pegasus's reins go slack just long enough for the black steed to kick  
him in the head and fly away free over Miami Bay.  
For a split second, Luke's guards were too stunned to do anything except watch the bear twins' bodies  
dissolve into smoke.  
Then there was a wild chorus of war cries and hooves thundering against metal. A dozen centaurs  
charged out of the main stairwell.  
"Ponies!" Tyson cried with delight.  
My mind had trouble processing everything I saw. Chiron was among the crowd, but his relatives were  
almost nothing like him. There were centaurs with black Arabian stallion bodies, others with gold  
palomino coats, others with orange-and-white spots like paint horses. Some wore brightly colored  
T-shirts with Day-Glo letters that said PARTY PONIES: SOUTH FLORIDA CHAPTER. Some were  
armed with bows, some with baseball bats, some with paintball guns. One had his face painted like a  
Comanche warrior and was waving a large orange Styrofoam hand making a big Number I. Another was  
bare-chested and painted entirely green. A third had googly-eye glasses with the eyeballs bouncing  
around on Slinky coils, and one of those baseball caps with soda-can-and-straw attachments on either  
side.  
They exploded onto the deck with such ferocity and color that for a moment even Luke was stunned. I  
couldn't tell whether they had come to celebrate or attack.  
Apparently both. As Luke was raising his sword to rally his troops, a centaur shot a custom-made arrow  
with a leather boxing glove on the end. It smacked Luke in the face and sent him crashing into the  
swimming pool.  
His warriors scattered. I couldn't blame them. Facing the hooves of a rearing stallion is scary enough, but  
when it's a centaur, armed with a bow and whooping it up in a soda-drinking hat, even the bravest warrior  
would retreat.  
"Come get some!" yelled one of the party ponies.  
They let loose with their paintball guns. A wave of blue and yellow exploded against Luke's warriors,  
blinding them and splattering them from head to toe. They tried to run, only to slip and fall.  
Chiron galloped toward Annabeth, Lara and Grover, neatly plucked them off the deck, and deposited them on  
his back.  
I tried to get up, but my wounded leg still felt like it was on fire.  
Luke was crawling out of the pool.  
"Attack, you fools.'" he ordered his troops. Somewhere down below deck, a large alarm bell thrummed.  
I knew any second we would be swamped by Luke's reinforcements. Already, his warriors were getting  
over their surprise, coming at the centaurs with swords and spears drawn.  
Tyson slapped half a dozen of them aside, knocking them over the guardrail into Miami Bay. But more  
warriors were coming up the stairs.  
"Withdraw, brethren!" Chiron said.  
"You won't get away with this, horse man!" Luke shouted. He raised his sword, but got smacked in the  
face with another boxing glove arrow, and sat down hard in a deck chair.  
A palomino centaur hoisted me onto his back. "Dude, get your big friend!"  
"Tyson!" I yelled. "Come on!"  
Tyson dropped the two warriors he was about to tie into a knot and jogged after us. He jumped on the  
centaur's back.  
"Dude!" the centaur groaned, almost buckling under Tyson's weight. "Do the words 'low-carb diet' mean  
any-thing to you?"  
Luke's warriors were organizing themselves into a phalanx. But by the time they were ready to  
advance, the centaurs had galloped to the edge of the deck and fearlessly jumped the guardrail, as if it  
were a steeplechase and not ten stories above the ground. I was sure we were going to die. We  
plummeted toward the docks, but the centaurs hit the asphalt with hardly a jolt and galloped off,  
whooping and yelling taunts at the Princess Andromeda as we raced into the streets of downtown  
Miami.  
I have no idea what the Miamians thought as we galloped by.  
Streets and buildings began to blur as the centaurs picked up speed. It felt as if space were  
compacting—as if each centaur step took us miles and miles. In no time, we'd left the city behind. We  
raced through marshy fields of high grass and ponds and stunted trees.  
Finally, we found ourselves in a trailer park at the edge of a lake. The trailers were all horse trailers,  
tricked out with televisions and mini-refrigerators and mosquito netting. We were in a centaur camp.  
"Dude!" said a party pony as he unloaded his gear. "Did you see that bear guy? He was all like: 'Whoa, I  
have an arrow in my mouth!'"  
The centaur with the googly-eye glasses laughed. "That was awesome! Head slam!"  
The two centaurs charged at each other full-force and knocked heads, then went staggering off in  
different directions with crazy grins on their faces.  
Chiron sighed. He set Annabeth, Lara and Grover down on a picnic blanket next to me. "I really wish my  
cousins wouldn't slam their heads together. They don't have the brain cells to spare."  
"Chiron," I said, still stunned by the fact that he was here. "You saved us."  
He gave me a dry smile. "Well now, I couldn't very well let you die, especially since you've cleared my  
name."  
"But how did you know where we were?" Annabeth asked.  
"Advanced planning, my dear. I figured you would wash up near Miami if you made it out of the Sea of  
Monsters alive. Almost everything strange washes up near Miami."  
"Gee, thanks," Grover mumbled.  
"No, no," Chiron said. "I didn't mean ... Oh, never mind. I am glad to see you, my young satyr. The point  
is, I was able to eavesdrop on Percy's Iris-message and trace the signal. Iris and I have been friends for  
centuries. I asked her to alert me to any important communications in this area. It then took no effort to  
convince my cousins to ride to your aid. As you see, centaurs can travel quite fast when we wish to.  
Distance for us is not the same as distance for humans."  
I looked over at the campfire, where three party ponies were teaching Tyson to operate a paintball gun.  
I hoped they knew what they were getting into.  
"So what now?" I asked Chiron. "We just let Luke sail away? He's got Kronos aboard that ship. Or  
parts of him, anyway."  
Chiron knelt, carefully folding his front legs underneath him. He opened the medicine pouch on his belt  
and started to treat my wounds. "I'm afraid, Percy, that today has been something of a draw. We didn't  
have the strength of numbers to take that ship. Luke was not organized enough to pursue us. Nobody  
won."  
"But we got the Fleece!" Annabeth said. "Clarisse is on her way back to camp with it right now."  
Chiron nodded, though he still looked uneasy. "You are all true heroes. And as soon as we get Percy  
fixed up, you must return to Half-Blood Hill. The centaurs shall carry you."  
"You're coming, too?" I asked.  
"Oh yes, Percy. I'll be relieved to get home. My brethren here simply do not appreciate Dean Martin's  
music. Besides, I must have some words with Mr. D. There's the rest of the summer to plan. So much  
training to do. And I want to see ... I'm curious about the Fleece."  
I didn't know exactly what he meant, but it made me worried about what Luke had said: I was going to  
let you take the Fleece ... once I was done with it.  
Had he just been lying? I'd learned with Kronos there was usually a plan within a plan. The titan lord  
wasn't called the Crooked One for nothing. He had ways of getting people to do what he wanted  
without them ever realizing his true intentions.  
Over by the campfire, Tyson let loose with his paintball gun. A blue projectile splattered against one of  
the centaurs, hurling him backward into the lake. The centaur came up grinning, covered in swamp muck  
and blue paint, and gave Tyson two thumbs up.  
"Annabeth," Chiron said, "perhaps you, Lara and Grover would go supervise Tyson and my cousins before they, ah, teach each other too many bad habits?"  
Annabeth met his eyes. Understanding passed between them.  
"Sure, Chiron," Annabeth said. "Come on, goat boy."  
"But I don't like paintball."  
"Yes, you do." She hoisted Grover to his hooves and led him off toward the campfire.  
Chiron finished bandaging my leg. "Percy, I had a talk with Annabeth on the way here. A talk about the  
prophecy."  
Uh-oh, I thought.  
"It wasn't her fault," I said. "I made her tell me."  
His eyes flickered with irritation. I was sure he was going to chew me out, but then his look turned to  
weariness. "I suppose I could not expect to keep it secret forever."  
"So am I the one in the prophecy?"  
Chiron tucked his bandages back into his pouch. "I wish I knew, Percy. You're not yet sixteen. For now,  
we must simply train you as best we can, and leave the future to the Fates."  
The Fates. I hadn't thought about those old ladies in a long time, but as soon as Chiron mentioned them,  
something clicked.  
"That's what it meant," I said.  
Chiron frowned. "That's what what meant?"  
"Last summer. The omen from the Fates, when I saw them snip somebody's life string. I thought it meant  
I was going to die right away, but it's worse than that. It's got something to do with your prophecy. The  
death they foretold—it's going to happen when I'm sixteen."  
Chiron's tail whisked nervously in the grass. "My boy, you can't be sure of that. We don't even know if  
the prophecy is about you."  
"But there isn't any other half-blood child of the Big Three!"  
"That we know of."  
"And Kronos is rising. He's going to destroy Mount Olympus!"  
"He will try," Chiron agreed. "And Western Civilization along with it, if we don't stop him. But we will  
stop him. You will not be alone in that fight."  
I knew he was trying to make me feel better, but I remembered what Annabeth had told me. It would  
come down to one hero. One decision that would save or destroy the West. And I felt sure the Fates  
had been giving me some kind of warning about that. Something terrible was going to happen, either to  
me or to somebody I was close to.  
"I'm just a kid, Chiron," I said miserably. "What good is one lousy hero against something like Kronos?"  
Chiron managed a smile. '"What good is one lousy hero'? Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain said something  
like that to me once, just before he single-handedly changed the course of your Civil War."  
He pulled an arrow from his quiver and turned the razor-sharp tip so it glinted in the firelight. "Celestial  
bronze, Percy. An immortal weapon. What would happen if you shot this at a human?"  
"Nothing," I said. "It would pass right through."  
"That's right," he said. "Humans don't exist on the same level as the immortals. They can't even be hurt  
by our weapons. But you, Percy—you are part god, part human. You live in both worlds. You can be  
harmed by both, and you can affect both. That's what makes heroes so special. You carry the hopes of  
humanity into the realm of the eternal. Monsters never die. They are reborn from the chaos and  
barbarism that is always bubbling underneath civilization, the very stuff that makes Kronos stronger. They  
must be defeated again and again, kept at bay. Heroes embody that struggle. You fight the battles  
humanity must win, every generation, in order to stay human. Do you understand?"  
"I ... I don't know."  
"You must try, Percy. Because whether or not you are the child of the prophecy, Kronos thinks you  
might be. And after today, he will finally despair of turning you to his side. That is the only reason he  
hasn't killed you yet, you know. As soon as he's sure he can't use you, he will destroy you."  
"You talk like you know him."  
Chiron pursed his lips. "I do know him."  
I stared at him. I sometimes forgot just how old Chiron was. "Is that why Mr. D blamed you when the  
tree was poisoned? Why you said some people don't trust you?"  
"Indeed."  
"But, Chiron ... I mean, come on! Why would they think you'd ever betray the camp for Kronos?"  
Chiron's eyes were deep brown, full of thousands of years of sadness. "Percy, remember your training.  
Remember your study of mythology. What is my connection to the titan lord?"  
I tried to think, but I'd always gotten my mythology mixed up. Even now, when it was so real, so  
important to my own life, I had trouble keeping all the names and facts straight. I shook my head. "You,  
uh, owe Kronos a favor or something? He spared your life?"  
"Percy," Chiron said, his voice impossibly soft. "The titan Kronos is my father."


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

We arrived in Long Island just after Clarisse, thanks to the centaurs' travel powers. I rode on Chiron's back, and along the way Chiron explained to me that even if the Fleece did have the power to bring Thalia back, it might not be immediate if the poison has progressed as far as we fear it has.

When we got to camp, the centaurs were anxious to meet Dionysus. They'd heard he threw some really wild parties, but they were disappointed. The wine god was in no mood to celebrate as the whole camp gathered at the top of Half-Blood Hill.

The camp had been through a hard two weeks. The arts and crafts cabin had burned to the ground from an attack by a _Draco Aionius_ which was a type of dragon that blows things up. The Big House's rooms were overflowing with wounded. The kids in the Apollo cabin, who were the best healers, had been working overtime performing first aid. Everybody looked weary and battered as we crowded around Thalia's tree.

The moment Clarisse draped the Golden Fleece over the lowest bough, the moonlight seemed to brighten turning from gray to liquid silver, as if Artemis herself was responding to the Fleece's return. A cool breeze rustled in the branches and rippled through the grass, all the way into the valley. Everything came into sharper focus—the glow of the fireflies down in the woods, the smell of the strawberry fields, the sound of the waves on the beach.

Gradually, the needles on the pine tree started turning from brown to green.

Everybody cheered. It was happening slowly, but there could be no doubt—the Fleece's magic was seeping into the tree, filling it with new power and expelling poison.

Only time would tell if Thalia would be brought back to us and see if it impacts the prophecy or not.

Chiron ordered a twenty-four/seven guard duty on the hilltop, at least until he could find an appropriate monster to protect the Fleece. He said he'd place an ad in _Olympus Weekly_ right away.

In the meantime, Clarisse was carried on her cabin mates' shoulders down to the amphitheater, where she was honored with a laurel wreath, burning her own shroud, and a lot of celebrating around the campfire.

Nobody gave Annabeth or me a second look as if we never left, which I don't mind. Not only because it means we won't be expelled, but because for once I didn't want the attention. For once I wanted to be a regular Camp Half-Blood Camper.

Later that night, as we were roasting s'mores and listening to the Stoll brothers tell us a ghost story about an evil king who was eaten alive by demonic breakfast pastries, Clarisse shoved me from behind and whispered in my ear, "Just because you were cool one time, Jackson, don't think you're off the hook with Ares. I'm still waiting for the right opportunity to pulverize you."

I gave her grudgingly smile. "I wouldn't expect more from you, War girl!"

…

The next morning, after the party ponies headed back to Florida, Chiron made a surprise announcement: the chariot races would go ahead as scheduled. We'd all figured they were history now that Tantalus was gone, but completing them did feel the right thing to do, especially now that Chiron was back and the camp was safe.

The best part was Annabeth allowed Tyson to be our full-time pit crew for the race, even add his own modifications to our chariot. Lara was still in Hermes cabin undetermined, which I found odd with all the things she has done for Thalia and the Gods. Anyway, it just meant she was going to sit this one out.

We spent the next two days training like crazy. The deal remained the same, if we win we split the prize between Poseidon and Athena Cabin.

The night before the race, I stayed late at the stables.

I was talking to our horses, giving them one final brushing, when somebody right behind me said, "Fine animals, horses. Wish I'd thought of them."

I turned to see Hermes in a postal carrier outfit leaning against the stable door with a mailbag slung over his shoulder.

"Hermes?" I stammered.

"Hello, Percy," Hermes responded.

"Listen Hermes, about Luke—I wasn't able to tell him about _that_ dream," I responded, "I'm sorry. I tried to tell him, but he's—"

"Stubborn," Hermes admitted, "Luke may not know it, but he's as stubborn as his mother was that day."

I looked down remembering the dream of what happened to Luke's mom.

In the distance, the conch horn sounded, signaling curfew.

"You should get to bed," Hermes said. "I've helped you get into quite enough trouble this summer already. I really only came to make this delivery from your father."

"Dad?" I asked.

Hermes took an electronic signature pad from his mailbag and handed it to me. "Sign there, please."

I picked up the stylus before realizing it was entwined with a pair of green snakes. Normally this would creep me out, but I tried to keep it to myself as I signed it.

 _Did you bring me a rat?_ George asked.

"No…" I said. "Uh, we didn't find any."

 _Other than a guinea pig_.

 _George!_ Martha chided. _Don't tease the boy_.

I handed the pad back to Hermes, and in exchange he handed me a sea blue envelope.

I could tell it was from my father. I could sense his power in cool blue paper, as if the envelope itself had folded out of an ocean wave.

"Good luck tomorrow," Hermes said. "Fine team of horses you have there, though you'll excuse me if I root for Hermes cabin."

"I would be surprise if you didn't," I responded.

 _And don't be too discourage when you read it, dear_ , Martha told me. _He_ does _have your interest at heart, just as he_ always _had._

"What do you mean?" I asked.

 _Don't mind her,_ George said. _And next time, remember, snakes work for tips._

"Enough, you two," Hermes said. "Goodbye, Percy. For now."

Small white wings sprouted from his pith helmet he was wearing, and he began to glow. I adverted my eyes before Hermes revealed his true divine form. In a brilliant white flash he was gone, and I was alone with horses.

I stared at the blue envelope in my hands. It was addressed in strong but elegant handwriting.

 ** _Percy Jackson  
c/o Camp Half-Blood  
Farm Road 3.141  
Long Island, New York 11954_**

An actual letter from my father. I didn't know why he send it. It could be a congratulation or a warning.

I opened the envelope and unfolded the paper.

Two simple words were printed in the middle of the page but it was affective:

 _Brace Yourself_

…

The next morning, everybody was buzzing about the chariot race, though they kept glancing nervously at the sky like they expected to see Stymphalian birds gathering. None did. It was a beautiful summer day with blue sky and plenty of sunshine. The camp had started to look the way it should look: the meadows were green and lush; the white columns gleamed on the Greek buildings; dryads played happily in the woods.

And I was miserable. Not because dad send me a letter with only two words but the possibilities of why. One question did come to my mind: _Did Kronos plan to use Thalia if she comes back_

I tried to keep my mind on the race as Annabeth and I drove onto the track. I couldn't help admiring the work Tyson had done to it. The chariot was reinforced with celestial bronze. The wheels were realigned with magical suspensions so we glided along with hardly a bump. The rigging for the horses was so perfectly balance that the team turned at the slightest tug of the reins.

Tyson had also made us two javelins, each with three buttons on the shaft. The first button primed the javelin to explode on impact, releasing razor sharp wire that would tangle and shred the opponent's wheels. The second button produced a blunt (but still very painful) bronze spearhead designed to knock a driver out of his carriage. The third button brought up a grappling hook that could be used to lock onto an enemies' chariot or push it away.

I find we were in pretty good shape for the race, but Tyson still warned me to be careful. The other chariot teams had plenty of tricks up their togas.

"Here," he said, just before the race began.

He handed me a wristwatch. There wasn't anything special about it—just a white-and-silver clock face, a black leather strap—but as soon as I saw it I realize that this is what I'd seen him tinkering on all summer.

I didn't usually like to wear watches, but I couldn't say no to Tyson.

"Thanks, bro." I put it on and found it was surprisingly light and comfortable. I could hardly tell I was wearing it.

"Didn't finish it in time for the trip," Tyson mumbled. "Sorry, sorry."

"Hey, man. No big deal."

"If you need protection in the race," he advised, "hit the button."

Normally I would question something like that, but considering this was Tyson's first project and he was taught by Beckendorf, I'm a bit curious. "Okay, I promise I'll use it if needed. And we'll win this race for you."

Tyson smiled and headed back to the stands. Just in time too. Chiron was now at the starting line, ready to blow the conch.

I climbed on board the chariot and got into position just as Chiron blew the starting signal.

The horses knew what to do. We shot down the track faster than before causing Annabeth and I to hold on for dear life. The wheels glided beautifully. We took the first turn a full chariot length ahead of Clarisse, who was busy trying to fight off a javelin attack from the Stoll brothers in the chariot.

"Incoming!" Annabeth yelled. She threw her first javelin in grappling hook mode, knocking away a lead-weighted net that would have entangled us both. Apollo's chariot had come up on our flank.

"Switch sides!" I responded.

Annabeth reluctantly nodded and took the reins. I took out my thermos and summoned a blast of water at the Apollo's driver—a first year—knocking him against his teammate and sending them both toppling out of their chariot in a backward somersault. The horses felt the reins go slack and went crazy, riding straight for the crowd. Campers scrambled for cover as the horse leaped the corner of the bleachers and the golden chariot flipped over. The horses galloped back toward their stable, dragging the upside-down chariot behind them.

Apollo's chariot was down, but we now had Hephaestus coming up close behind while the Stoll Brothers and Clarisse not far behind.

We made the second turn without a problem and passed the starting line and thundered into our final lap.

The Hephaestus team was still gaining.

Beckendorf grinned as he pressed a button on his command console. Steel cables shot out of the front of his mechanical horses, wrapping around our back rail. Our chariot shuddered as Beckendorf winched system started working—pulling us backward while Beckendorf pulled himself forward.

Annabeth drew her knife. She hacked the cables but they were too thick.

"Can't cut them!" she yelled.

The Hephaestus chariot was now dangerously close, their horses about to trample underfoot.

"Switch with me!" I told Annabeth.

She nodded and took the reins. I uncapped riptide and cut through the cables like kite string. We lurched forward, but Beckendorfs driver just swung his chariot to our left and pulled up next to us. Beckendorf drew his sword. He slashed at Annabeth, and I parried the blade away.

We were coming up on the last turn. We'd never make it. I needed to disable the Hephaestus chariot and get it out of the way, but I had to protect Annabeth, too. Just because Beckendorf was a nice guy didn't mean he wouldn't send us both to the infirmary if we let our guard down.

We were neck and neck now, Clarisse coming up from behind, making up for lost time.

"See ya, Percy!" Beckendorf yelled. "Here's a little parting gift!"

He threw a leather pouch into our chariot. It stuck to the floor and began billowing green smoke.

"Greek fire!" Annabeth yelled.

I muttered some incoherent words in ancient Greek. I knew full well how powerful Greek fire was. We needed to get rid of it quickly, but I was too busy trying to parry Beckendorfs blade away.

Then I remembered the watch.

I managed to punch the stopwatch button. Instantly, the watch changed. It expanded, the metal rim spiraling outward like an old-fashioned camera shutter, a leather strap wrapping around my forearm until I was holding a round war shield four feet wide, the inside soft leather, the outside polished bronze engraved with designs I didn't have time to examine.

Tyson had come through. I raised the shield, and Beckendorfs sword clang against it. His blade shattered

"What?" he shouted. "How—"

He didn't have time to say more because I knocked him in the chest with my new shield and sent him flying out of his chariot, tumbling in the dirt.

At this point the Greek fire was shooting sparks. I shoved the tip of my sword under the leather pouch and flipped it up like a spatula. The Greek fire dislodged and flew into Hephaestus chariot at the driver's feet. He yelped.

I took out the final javelin and press the button that turned it into a grappling hook and used it to push the Hephaestus chariot away. In a split second the driver made the right choice: he dove out of the chariot, which careen away with the force of our javelin and exploded in green flames. The metal horses seemed to short-circuit. They turned and dragged the burning wreckage back toward Clarisse and the Stoll brothers, who had to swerve to avoid it.

Annabeth pulled the reins for the last turn and we crossed the finish line. The crowd roared.

Once the chariot stopped, our friends mobbed us. They started chanting our names, but Annabeth yelled over the noise: "Hold up! Listen! It wasn't just us!"

The crowd didn't want to be quiet, but Annabeth made herself heard: "We couldn't have done it without somebody else! We couldn't have won this race or gotten the Fleece or saved Grover!"

I took it from there. "My baby brother, Tyson Jackson!"

Tyson blushed. The crowd cheered. Annabeth planted a kiss on my cheek which made me blush. The roaring got a lot louder after that. The entire Athena Cabin lifted me and Annabeth and Tyson onto their shoulders and carried us toward the winner's platform, where Chiron was waiting to bestow the laurel wreaths.

 **Original text**

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	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

 **Original text**

Contribute a better translation

* * *

 **  
**That afternoon was one of the happiest I'd ever spent at camp, which maybe goes to show, you never  
know when your world is about to be rocked to pieces.  
Grover announced that he'd be able to spend the rest of the summer with us before resuming his quest  
for Pan. His bosses at the Council of Cloven Elders were so impressed that he hadn't gotten himself  
killed and had cleared the way for future searchers, that they granted him a two-month fur-lough and a  
new set of reed pipes. The only bad news: Grover insisted on playing those pipes all afternoon long, and  
his musical skills hadn't improved much. He played "YMCA," and the strawberry plants started going  
crazy, wrapping around our feet like they were trying to strangle us. I guess I couldn't blame them.  
Grover told me he could dissolve the empathy link between us, now that we were face to face, but I told  
him I'd just as soon keep it if that was okay with him. He put down his reed pipes and stared at me. "But,  
if I get in trouble again, you'll be in danger, Percy! You could die!"  
"If you get in trouble again, I want to know about it. And I'll come help you again, G-man. I wouldn't  
have it any other way."  
In the end he agreed not to break the link. He went back to playing "YMCA" for the strawberry plants.  
I didn't need an empathy link with the plants to know how they felt about it.

Later on during archery class, Chiron pulled me aside and told me he'd fixed my problems with  
Meriwether Prep. The school no longer blamed me for destroying their gymnasium. The police were no  
longer looking for me.  
"How did you manage that?" I asked.  
Chiron's eyes twinkled. "I merely suggested that the mortals had seen something different on that day—a  
furnace explosion that was not your fault."  
"You just said that and they bought it?"  
"I manipulated the Mist. Someday, when you're ready, I'll show how it's done."  
"You mean, I can go back to Meriwether next year?"  
Chiron raised his eyebrows. "Oh, no, they've still expelled you. Your headmaster, Mr. Bonsai, said you  
had—how did he put it? —un-groovy karma that disrupted the school's educational aura. But you're not  
in any legal trouble, which was a relief to your mother. Oh, and speaking of your mother ..."  
He unclipped his cell phone from his quiver and handed it to me. "It's high time you called her."

The worst part was the beginning—the  
"Percy-Jackson-what-were-you-thinking-do-you-have-any-idea-how-worried-I-was-sneaking-off-to-c  
amp-without-permission-going-on-dangerous-quests-and-scaring-me-half-to-death" part.  
But finally she paused to catch her breath. "Oh, I'm just glad you're safe!"  
That's the great thing about my mom. She's no good at staying angry. She tries, but it just isn't in her  
nature.  
"I'm sorry, Mom," I told her. "I won't scare you again." "Don't promise me that, Percy. You know very well it will only get worse." She tried to sound casual  
about it, but I could tell she was pretty shaken up.  
I wanted to say something to make her feel better, but I knew she was right. Being a half-blood, I would  
always be doing things that scared her. And as I got older, the dangers would just get greater.  
"I could come home for a while," I offered.  
"No, no. Stay at camp. Train. Do what you need to do. But you will come home for the next school  
year?"  
"Yeah, of course. Uh, if there's any school that will take me."  
"Oh, we'll find something, dear," my mother sighed. "Some place where they don't know us yet."

Lara didn't seem that happy about being back at camp. No matter how hard Chiron tried he couldn't get her away from that tree. None of us could. In a way, it was good. Thalia would know the person who stands in front of her when she wakes up. If she wakes up that is. Even though I've only known Lara a couple of days, I felt the urge to go up to her and ask her about well…Life. Her life to be exact. How does she know Grover and Annabeth? I felt better of it though. She'd explain in her own time, whenever that was.

As for Tyson, the campers treated him like a hero. I would've been happy to have him as my cabin mate  
forever, but that evening, as we were sitting on a sand dune overlooking the Long Island Sound, he made  
an announcement that completely took me by surprise.  
"Dream came from Daddy last night," he said. "He wants me to visit."  
I wondered if he was kidding, but Tyson really didn't know how to kid. "Poseidon sent you a dream  
message?"  
Tyson nodded. "Wants me to go underwater for the rest of the summer. Learn to work at Cyclopes'  
forges. He called it an inter—an intern—"  
"An internship?"  
"Yes." I let that sink in. I'll admit, I felt a little jealous. Poseidon had never invited me underwater. But  
then I thought, Tyson was going? Just like that?  
"When would you leave?" I asked.  
"Now."  
"Now. Like ... now now?"  
"Now."  
I stared out at the waves in the Long Island Sound. The water was glistening red in the sunset.  
"I'm happy for you, big guy," I managed. "Seriously."  
"Hard to leave my new brother," he said with a tremble in his voice. "But I want to make things.  
Weapons for the camp. You will need them."  
Unfortunately, I knew he was right. The Fleece hadn't solved all the camp's problems. Luke was still out  
there, gathering an army aboard the Princess Andromeda. Kronos was still re-forming in his golden  
coffin. Eventually, we would have to fight them.  
"You'll make the best weapons ever," I told Tyson. I held up my watch proudly. "I bet they'll tell good  
time, too."  
Tyson sniffled. "Brothers help each other."  
"You're my brother," I said. "No doubt about it."  
He patted me on the back so hard he almost knocked me down the sand dune. Then he wiped a tear  
from his cheek and stood to go. "Use the shield well."  
"I will, big guy."  
"Save your life someday."  
The way he said it, so matter-of-fact, I wondered if that Cyclops eye of his could see into the future.  
He headed down to the beach and whistled. Rainbow, the hippocampus, burst out of the waves. I  
watched the two of them ride off together into the realm of Poseidon.  
Once they were gone, I looked down at my new wristwatch. I pressed the button and the shield spiraled  
out to full size. Hammered into the bronze were pictures in Ancient Greek style, scenes from our  
adventures this summer. There was Annabeth slaying a Laistrygonian dodgeball player, me fighting the  
bronze bulls on Half-Blood Hill, Tyson riding Rainbow toward the Princess Andromeda, the CSS  
Birmingham blasting its cannons at Charybdis. I ran my hand across a picture of Tyson, battling the  
Hydra as he held aloft a box of Monster Donuts.  
I couldn't help feeling sad. I knew Tyson would have an awesome time under the ocean. But I'd miss  
everything about him—his fascination with horses, the way he could fix chariots or crumple metal with his  
bare hands, or tie bad guys into knots. I'd even miss him snoring like an earth-quake in the next bunk all  
night.  
"Hey, Percy."  
I turned.  
Annabeth and Grover were standing at the top of the sand dune. I guess maybe I had some sand in my  
eyes, because I was blinking a lot.  
"Tyson ..." I told them. "He had to ..."  
"We know," Annabeth said softly. "Chiron told us."  
"Cyclopes forges." Grover shuddered. "I hear the cafeteria food there is terrible! Like, no enchiladas at  
all."  
Annabeth held out her hand. "Come on, Seaweed Brain. Time for dinner."  
We walked back toward the dining pavilion together, just the three of us, like old times.

A storm raged that night, but it parted around Camp Half-Blood as storms usually did. Lightning flashed  
against the horizon, waves pounded the shore, but not a drop fell in our valley. We were protected again,  
thanks to the Fleece, sealed inside our magical borders.  
Still, my dreams were restless. The titan's cold laughter filled the darkness.  
Then my dream changed. I was following Tyson to the bottom of the sea, into the court of Poseidon. It  
was a radiant hall filled with blue light, the floor cobbled with pearls. And there, on a throne of coral, sat  
my father, dressed like a simple fisherman in khaki shorts and a sun-bleached T-shirt. I looked up into his  
tan weathered face, his deep green eyes, and he spoke two words: Brace yourself.  
I woke with a start.  
There was a banging on the door. Grover flew inside without waiting for permission. "Percy!" he  
stammered. "Annabeth ... on the hill ... she ..."  
The look in his eyes told me something was terribly wrong. Annabeth had been on guard duty that night,  
protecting the Fleece. If something had happened—  
I ripped off the covers, my blood like ice water in my veins. I threw on some clothes while Grover tried  
to make a complete sentence, but he was too stunned, too out of breath. "She's lying there ... just lying  
there ..."  
I ran outside and raced across the central yard, Grover right behind me. Dawn was just breaking, but  
the whole camp seemed to be stirring. Word was spreading. Something huge had happened. A few  
campers were already making their way toward the hill, satyrs and nymphs and heroes in a weird mix of  
armor and pajamas.  
I heard the clop of horse hooves, and Chiron galloped up behind us, looking grim.  
"Is it true?" he asked Grover.  
Grover could only nod, his expression dazed.  
I tried to ask what was going on, but Chiron grabbed me by the arm and effortlessly lifted me onto his  
back. Together we thundered up Half-Blood Hill, where a small crowd had started to gather.  
I expected to see the Fleece missing from the pine tree, but it was still there, glittering in the first light of  
dawn. The storm had broken and the sky was blood red.  
"Curse the titan lord," Chiron said. "He's tricked us again, given himself another chance to control the  
prophecy."  
"What do you mean?" I asked.  
"The Fleece," he said. "The Fleece did its work too well."  
We galloped forward, everyone moving out of our way. There at the base of the tree, a girl was lying  
unconscious. Another 2 girls in Greek armor were kneeling next to her.  
Blood roared in my ears. I couldn't think straight. Annabeth had been attacked? But why was the Fleece  
still there?  
The tree itself looked perfectly fine, whole and healthy, suffused with the essence of the Golden Fleece.  
"It healed the tree," Chiron said, his voice ragged. "And poison was not the only thing it purged."  
Then I realized Annabeth and Lara weren't the ones lying on the ground. They were the ones in armor, kneeling next to the unconscious girl. When Annabeth saw us, she ran to Chiron. "It... she ... just suddenly there ..."  
Her eyes were streaming with tears, but I still didn't understand. I was too freaked out to make sense of  
it all. I leaped off Chiron's back and ran toward the unconscious girl. Chiron said: "Percy, wait!"  
I knelt by her side. She had short black hair and freckles across her nose. She was built like a  
long-distance runner, lithe and strong, and she wore clothes that were somewhere between punk and  
Goth—a black T-shirt, black tattered jeans, and a leather jacket with buttons from a bunch of bands I'd  
never heard of.  
She wasn't a camper. I didn't recognize her from any of the cabins. And yet I had the strangest feeling  
I'd seen her before...  
"It's true," Grover said, panting from his run up the hill. "I can't believe ..."  
Nobody else came close to the girl.  
I put my hand on her forehead. Her skin was cold, but my fingertips tingled as if they were burning.  
"She needs nectar and ambrosia," I said. She was clearly a half-blood, whether she was a camper or  
not. I could sense that just from one touch. I didn't understand why everyone was acting so scared.  
I took her by the shoulders and lifted her into sitting position, resting her head on my shoulder.  
"Come on!" I yelled to the others. "What's wrong with you people? Let's get her to the Big House."  
No one moved, not even Chiron. They were all too stunned.  
Then the girl took a shaky breath. She coughed and opened her eyes.  
Her irises were startlingly blue—electric blue.  
The girl stared at me in bewilderment, shivering and wild-eyed. "Who—"  
"I'm Percy," I said. "You're safe now."  
"Strangest dream ..."  
"It's okay."  
"Dying."  
"No," I assured her. "You're okay. What's your name?"  
That's when I knew. Even before she said it.  
The girl's blue eyes stared into mine, and I understood what the Golden Fleece quest had been about.  
The poisoning of the tree. Everything. Kronos had done it to bring another chess piece into play—  
another chance to control the prophecy.  
Even Chiron, Annabeth, Lara and Grover, who should've been celebrating this moment, were too shocked, thinking about what it might mean for the future. And I was holding someone who was destined to be my best friend, or possibly my worst enemy.  
"I am Thalia," the girl said. "Daughter of Zeus."

 **End of Sea of Monsters – Start of Titan's Curse**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

The Friday before winter break, my mom packed me an overnight bag and a few deadly weapons and  
took me to a new boarding school. We picked up my friends Annabeth, Lara and Thalia on the way.  
It was an eight-hour drive from New York to Bar Harbor, Maine. Sleet and snow pounded the  
highway. Annabeth, Thalia, Lara and I hadn't seen each other in months, but between the blizzard and the thought of what we were about to do, we were too nervous to talk much. Except for my mom. She talks more when she's nervous. By the time we finally got to Westover Hall, it was getting dark, and she'd told Annabeth, Lara and Thalia every embarrassing baby story there was to tell about me.  
Thalia wiped the fog off the car window and peered outside. "Oh, yeah. This'll be fun."  
Westover Hall looked like an evil knight's castle. It was all black stone, with towers and slit windows  
and a big set of wooden double doors. It stood on a snowy cliff overlooking this big frosty forest on one  
side and the gray churning ocean on the other.  
"Are you sure you don't want me to wait?" my mother asked.  
"No, thanks, Mom," I said. "I don't know how long it will take. We'll be okay."  
"But how will you get back? I'm worried, Percy."  
I hoped I wasn't blushing. It was bad enough I had to depend on my mom to drive me to my battles.  
" It's okay, Ms. Jackson." Annabeth smiled reassuringly. Her blond hair was tucked into a ski cap and her  
gray eyes were the same color as the ocean. "We'll keep him out of trouble."  
My mom seemed to relax a little. She thinks Annabeth is the most levelheaded demigod ever to hit eighth  
grade. She's sure Annabeth often keeps me from getting killed. She's right, but that doesn't mean I have  
to like it.  
"All right, dears," my mom said. "Do you have everything you need?"  
"Yes, Ms. Jackson," Thalia said. "Thanks for the ride."  
"Extra sweaters? You have my cell phone number?"  
"Mom—"  
"Your ambrosia and nectar, Percy? And a golden drachma in case you need to contact camp?"  
"Mom, seriously! We'll be fine. Come on, guys."  
She looked a little hurt, and I was sorry about that, but I was ready to be out of that car. If my mom told  
one more story about how cute I looked in the bathtub when I was three years old, I was going to  
burrow into the snow and freeze myself to death.  
Annabeth, Lara and Thalia followed me outside. The wind blew straight through my coat like ice daggers.  
Once my mother's car was out of sight, Thalia said, "Your mom is so cool, Percy."  
"She's pretty okay," I admitted. "What about you? You ever get in touch with your mom?"  
As soon as I said it, I wished I hadn't. Thalia was great at giving evil looks, what with the punk clothes  
she always wears—the ripped-up army jacket, black leather pants and chain jewelry, the black eyeliner  
and those intense blue eyes. But the look she gave me now was a perfect evil "ten."  
"If that was any of your business, Percy—"  
"We'd better get inside," Annabeth interrupted. "Grover will be waiting."  
Thalia looked at the castle and shivered. "You're right. I wonder what he found here that made him send  
the distress call."  
I stared up at the dark towers of Westover Hall. "Nothing good," I guessed.

The oak doors groaned open, and the four of us stepped into the entry hall in a swirl of snow.  
All I could say was, "Whoa."  
The place was huge. The walls were lined with battle flags and weapon displays: antique rifles, battle  
axes, and a bunch of other stuff. I mean, I knew Westover was a military school and all, but the  
decorations seemed like overkill. Literally.  
My hand went to my pocket, where I kept my lethal ballpoint pen, Riptide. I could already sense  
something wrong in this place. Something dangerous. Thalia was rubbing her silver bracelet, her favorite  
magic item. I knew we were thinking the same thing. A fight was coming.  
Annabeth started to say, "I wonder where—"  
The doors slammed shut behind us.  
"Oo-kay," I mumbled. "Guess we'll stay awhile."  
I could hear music echoing from the other end of the hall. It sounded like dance music.  
We stashed our overnight bags behind a pillar and started down the hall. We hadn't gone very far when I  
heard footsteps on the stone floor, and a man and woman marched out of the shadows to intercept us.  
They both had short gray hair and black military-style uniforms with red trim. The woman had a wispy  
mustache, and the guy was clean-shaven, which seemed kind of backward to me. They both walked  
stiffly, like they had broomsticks taped to their spines.  
"Well?" the woman demanded. "What are you doing here?"  
"Um…" I realized I hadn't planned for this. I'd been so focused on getting to Grover and finding out  
what was wrong, I hadn't considered that someone might question three kids sneaking into the school at  
night. We hadn't talked at all in the car about how we would get inside. I said, "Ma'am, we're just—"  
"Ha!" the man snapped, which made me jump. "Visitors are not allowed at the dance! You shall be  
eee-jected!"  
He had an accent—French, maybe. He pronounced his J like in Jacques, He was tall, with a hawkish  
face. His nostrils flared when he spoke, which made it really hard not to stare up his nose, and his eyes  
were two different colors—one brown, one blue—like an alley cat's.  
I figured he was about to toss us into the snow, but then Thalia stepped forward and did something very  
weird.  
She snapped her fingers. The sound was sharp and loud. Maybe it was just my imagination, but I felt a  
gust of wind ripple out from her hand, across the room. It washed over all of us, making the banners  
rustle on the walls.  
"Oh, but we're not visitors, sir," Thalia said. "We go to school here. You remember: I'm Thalia. And this  
is Annabeth, Lara and Percy. We're in the eighth grade."  
The male teacher narrowed his two-colored eyes. I didn't know what Thalia was thinking. Now we'd  
probably get punished for lying and thrown into the snow. But the man seemed to be hesitating.  
He looked at his colleague. "Ms. Gottschalk, do you know these students?"  
Despite the danger we were in, I had to bite my tongue to keep from laughing. A teacher named Got  
Chalk? He had to be kidding.  
The woman blinked, like someone had just woken her up from a trance. "I… yes. I believe I do, sir."  
She frowned at us. "Annabeth. Thalia. Lara. Percy. What are you doing away from the gymnasium?"  
Before we could answer, I heard more footsteps, and Grover ran up, breathless. "You made it! You—"  
He stopped short when he saw the teachers. "Oh, Mrs. Gottschalk. Dr. Thorn! I, uh—"  
"What is it, Mr. Underwood?" said the man. His tone made it clear that he detested Grover. "What do  
you mean, they made it? These students live here."  
Grover swallowed. "Yes, sir. Of course, Dr. Thorn. I just meant, I'm so glad they made… the punch for  
the dance! The punch is great. And they made it!"  
Dr. Thorn glared at us. I decided one of his eyes had to be fake . The brown one? The blue one? He  
looked like he wanted to pitch us off the castle's highest tower, but then Mrs. Gottschalk said dreamily,  
"Yes, the punch is excellent. Now run along, all of you. You are not to leave the gymnasium again!"  
We didn't wait to be told twice. We left with a lot of "Yes, ma'ams" and "Yes, sirs" and a couple of  
salutes, just because it seemed like the thing to do.  
Grover hustled us down the hall in the direction of the music.  
I could feel the teachers' eyes on my back, but I walked closely to Thalia and asked in a low voice,  
"How did you do that finger-snap thing?"  
"You mean the Mist? Hasn't Chiron shown you how to do that yet?"  
An uncomfortable lump formed in my throat. Chiron was our head trainer at camp, but he'd never shown  
me anything like that. Why had he shown Thalia and not me?  
Grover hurried us to a door that had GYM written on the glass. Even with my dyslexia, I could read that  
much.  
"That was close!" Grover said. "Thank the gods you got here!"  
Annabeth, Lara and Thalia both hugged Grover. I gave him a big high five.  
It was good to see him after so many months. He'd gotten a little taller and had sprouted a few more  
whiskers, but otherwise he looked like he always did when he passed for human—a red cap on his curly  
brown hair to hide his goat horns, baggy jeans and sneakers with fake feet to hide his furry legs and  
hooves. He was wearing a black T-shirt that took me a few seconds to read. It said WESTOVER  
HALL: GRUNT. I wasn't sure whether that was, like, Grover's rank or maybe just the school motto.  
"So what's the emergency?" I asked.  
Grover took a deep breath. "I found two."  
"Two half-bloods?" Thalia asked, amazed. "Here?"  
Grover nodded.  
Finding one half-blood was rare enough. This year, Chiron had put the satyrs on emergency overtime  
and sent them all over the country, scouring schools from fourth grade through high school for possible  
recruits. These were desperate times. We were losing campers. We needed all the new fighters we could  
find. The problem was, there just weren't that many demigods out there.  
"A brother and a sister," he said. "They're ten and twelve. I don't know their parentage, but they're  
strong. We're running out of time, though. I need help."  
"Monsters?"  
One." Grover looked nervous. "He suspects. I don't think he's positive yet, but this is the last day of term.  
I'm sure he won't let them leave campus without finding out. It may be our last chance! Every time I try to  
get close to them, he's always there, blocking me. I don't know what to do!"  
Grover looked at Thalia desperately. I tried not to feel upset by that. Used to be, Grover looked to me  
for answers, but Thalia had seniority. Not just because her dad was Zeus. Thalia had more experience  
than any of us with fending off monsters in the real world.  
"Right," she said. "These half-bloods are at the dance?"  
Grover nodded.  
"Then let's dance," Thalia said. "Who's the monster?"  
"Oh," Grover said, and looked around nervously. "You just met him. The vice principal, Dr. Thorn."

Weird thing about military schools: the kids go absolutely nuts when there's a special event and they get  
to be out of uniform. I guess it's because everything's so strict the rest of the time, they feel like they've  
got to overcompensate or something.  
There were black and red balloons all over the gym floor, and guys were kicking them in each other's  
faces, or trying to strangle each other with the crepe-paper streamers taped to the walls. Girls moved around in football huddles, the way they always do, wearing lots of makeup and spaghetti-strap tops and  
brightly colored pants and shoes that looked like torture devices. Every once in a while, they'd surround  
some poor guy like a pack of piranhas, shrieking and giggling, and when they finally moved on, the guy  
would have ribbons in his hair and a bunch of lipstick graffiti all over his face. Some of the older guys  
looked more like me—uncomfortable, hanging out at the edges of the gym and trying to hide, like any  
minute they might have to fight for their lives. Of course, in my case, it was true…  
"There they are." Grover nodded toward a couple of younger kids arguing in the bleachers. "Bianca and  
Nico di Angelo"  
The girl wore a floppy green cap, like she was trying to hide her face. The boy was obviously her little  
brother. They both had dark silky hair and olive skin, and they used their hands a lot as they talked. The  
boy was shuffling some kind of trading cards. His sister seemed to be scolding him about something. She  
kept looking around like she sensed something was wrong.  
Lara said, "Do they …I mean, have you told them?"  
Grover shook his head. "You know how it is. That could put them in more danger. Once they realize  
who they are, their scent becomes stronger."  
He looked at me, and I nodded. I'd never really understood what half-bloods "smell" like to monster  
and satyrs, but I knew that your scent could get you killed. And the more powerful a demigod you  
became, the more you smelled like a monster's lunch.  
"So let's grab them and get out of here," I said.  
I started forward, but Thalia put her hand on my shoulder. The vice principal, Dr. Thorn, had slipped out  
of a doorway near the bleachers and was standing near the di Angelo siblings. He nodded coldly in our  
direction. His blue eye seemed to glow.  
Judging from his expression, I guessed Thorn hadn't been fooled by Thalia's trick with the Mist after all.  
He suspected who we were. He was just waiting to see why we were here.  
"Don't look at the kids," Thalia ordered. "We have to wait for a chance to get them. We need to pretend  
we're not interested in them. Throw him off the scent."  
"How?"  
"We're three powerful half-bloods. Our presence should confuse him. Mingle. Act natural. Do some  
dancing. But keep an eye on those kids."  
"Dancing?" Annabeth asked.  
Thalia nodded. She cocked her ear to the music and made a face. "Ugh. Who chose the Jesse  
McCartney?"  
Grover looked hurt. "I did."  
"Oh my gods, Grover. That is so lame. Can't you play, like, Green Day or something?"  
"Green who?"  
"Never mind. Let's dance."  
"But I can't dance!"  
"You can if I'm leading," Thalia said. "Come on, goat boy."  
Grover yelped as Thalia grabbed his hand and led him onto the dance floor.  
Annabeth smiled.  
"What?" I asked.  
"Nothing. It's just cool to have Thalia back."  
Annabeth had grown taller than me since last summer, which I found kind of disturbing. She used to  
wear no jewelry except for her Camp Half-Blood bead necklace, but now she wore little silver earrings  
shaped like owls—the symbol of her mother, Athena. She pulled off her ski cap, and her long blond hair  
tumbled down her shoulders. It made her look older, for some reason.  
"So…" I tried to think of something to say. Act natural like Thalia had told us. When you're a half-blood  
on a dangerous mission, what the heck is natural? "Um, design any good buildings lately?"  
Annabeth's eyes lit up, the way they always did when she talked about architecture. "Oh, my gods, Percy. At my new school, I get to take 3-D design as an elective, and there's this cool computer program…"  
She went on to explain how she'd designed this huge monument that she wanted to build at Ground Zero  
in Manhattan. She talked about structural supports and facades and stuff, and I tried to listen. I knew she  
wanted to be a super architect when she grew up—she loves math and historical buildings and all  
that—but I hardly understood a word she was saying.  
The truth was I was kind of disappointed to hear that she liked her new school so much. It was the first  
time she'd gone to school in New York. I'd been hoping to see her more often. It was a boarding school  
in Brooklyn, and she and Thalia were both attending, close enough to Camp Half-Blood that Chiron  
could help if they got in any trouble. Because it was an all-girls school, and I was going to MS-54 in  
Manhattan, I hardly ever saw them. I looked around pretending to be interested. I was but not really in the mood. Lara was definitely not following Thalia's… Orders? She wouldn't stop staring at Mr. Thorn, almost daring him to attack her.  
"Yeah, uh, cool," I said. "So, you're staying there the rest of the year, huh?"  
Her face got dark. "Well, maybe, if I don't—"  
"Hey!" Thalia called to us. She was slow dancing with Grover, who was tripping all over himself, kicking  
Thalia in the shins, and looking like he wanted to die. At least his feet were fake. Unlike me, he had an  
excuse for being clumsy.  
"Dance, you guys!" Thalia ordered. "You look stupid just standing there."  
I looked nervously at Annabeth, then at the groups of girls who were roaming the gym.  
"Well?" Annabeth said.  
"Um, who should I ask?"  
She punched me in the gut. "Me, Seaweed Brain."  
"Oh. Oh, right."  
So we went onto the dance floor, and I looked over to see how Thalia and Grover were doing things. I  
put one hand on Annabeth's hip, and she clasped my other hand like she was about to judo throw me.  
"I'm not going to bite," she told me. "Honestly, Percy. Don't you guys have dances at your school?"  
I didn't answer. The truth was we did. But I'd never, like, actually danced at one. I was usually one of  
the guys playing basketball in the corner.  
We shuffled around for a few minutes. I tried to concentrate on little things, like the crepe-paper  
streamers and the punch bowl—anything but the fact that Annabeth was taller than me, and my hands  
were sweaty and probably gross, and I kept stepping on her toes.  
"What were you saying earlier?" I asked. "Are you having trouble at school or something?"  
She pursed her lips. "It's not that. It's my dad."  
"Uh-oh." I knew Annabeth had a rocky relationship with her father. "I thought it was getting better with  
you two. Is it your stepmom again?"  
Annabeth sighed. "He decided to move. Just when I was getting settled in New York, he took this  
stupid new job researching for a World War I book. In San Francisco!'  
She said this the same way she might say Fields of Punishment or Hades's gym shorts.  
"So he wants you to move out there with him?" I asked.  
"To the other side of the country," she said miserably. "And half-bloods can't live in San Francisco. He  
should know that."  
"What? Why not?"  
Annabeth rolled her eyes. Maybe she thought I was kidding. "You know. It's right there!'  
"Oh," I said. I had no idea what she was talking about, but I didn't want to sound stupid. "So… you'll go  
back to living at camp or what?"  
"It's more serious than that, Percy. I… I probably should tell you something."  
Suddenly she froze. "They're gone."  
"What?"  
I followed her gaze. The bleachers. The two half-blood kids, Bianca and Nico, were no longer there.  
The door next to the bleachers was wide open. Dr. Thorn was nowhere in sight. Lara walked up to us. Clearly, she knew what was wrong.  
"We have to get Thalia and Grover!" Annabeth looked around frantically. "Oh, where'd they dance off  
to? Come on!"  
She ran through the crowd. I was about to follow when a mob of girls got in my way. I maneuvered  
around them to avoid getting the ribbon-and-lipstick treatment, and by the time I was free, Annabeth had  
disappeared. I turned a full circle, looking for her or Thalia and Grover. Instead, I saw something that  
chilled my blood.  
About fifty feet away, lying on the gym floor, was a floppy green cap just like the one Bianca di Angelo  
had been wearing. Near it were a few scattered trading cards. Then I caught a glimpse of Dr. Thorn. He  
was hurrying out a door at the opposite end of the gym, steering the di Angelo kids by the scruffs of their  
necks, like kittens.  
I still couldn't see Annabeth, but I knew she'd be heading the other way, looking for Thalia and Grover.  
I almost ran after her, and then I thought, wait.  
I remembered what Thalia had said to me in the entry hall, looking at me all puzzled when I asked about  
the finger-snap trick: Hasn't Chiron shown you how to do that yet? I thought about the way Grover  
had turned to her, expecting her to save the day.  
Not that I resented Thalia. She was cool. It wasn't her fault her dad was Zeus and she got all the  
attention… Still, I didn't need to run after her to solve every problem. Besides, there wasn't time. The di  
Angelo's were in danger. They might be long gone by the time I found my friends. I knew monsters. I  
could handle this myself. I looked over at Lara and she gave us a small nod of agreement.  
I took Riptide out of my pocket and ran after Dr. Thorn.

The door led into a dark hallway. I heard sounds of scuffling up ahead, then a painful grunt. I uncapped  
Riptide.  
The pen grew in my hands until I held a bronze Greek sword about three feet long with a leather-bound  
grip. The blade glowed faintly, casting a golden light on the rows of lockers. Lara did the same.  
I jogged down the corridor, but when I got to the other end, no one was there. I opened a door and  
found myself back in the main entry hall. I was completely turned around. I didn't see Dr. Thorn  
anywhere, but there on the opposite side of the room were the di Angelo kids. They stood frozen in  
horror, staring right at me.  
I advanced slowly, lowering the tip of my sword. "It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you."  
They didn't answer. Their eyes were full of fear. What was wrong with them? Where was Dr. Thorn?  
Maybe he'd sensed the presence of Riptide and retreated. Monsters hated celestial bronze weapons.  
"My name's Percy," I said, trying to keep my voice level. "I'm going to take you out of here, get you  
somewhere safe."  
Bianca's eyes widened. Her fists clenched. Only too late did I realize what her look meant. She wasn't  
afraid of me. She was trying to warn me.  
I whirled around and something went WHIISH! Pain exploded in my shoulder. A force like a huge  
hand yanked me backward and slammed me to the wall.  
I slashed with my sword but there was nothing to hit.  
A cold laugh echoed through the hall.  
"Yes, Perseus Jackson," Dr. Thorn said. His accent mangled the J in my last name. "I know who you  
are."  
I tried to free my shoulder. My coat and shirt were pinned to the wall by some kind of spike—a black  
dagger-like projectile about a foot long. It had grazed the skin of my shoulder as it passed through my  
clothes, and the cut burned. I'd felt something like this before. Poison.  
I forced myself to concentrate. I would not pass out.  
A dark silhouette now moved toward us. Dr. Thorn stepped into the dim light. He still looked human,  
but his face was ghoulish. He had perfect white teeth and his brown/blue eyes reflected the light of my  
sword.  
"Thank you for coming out of the gym," he said. "I hate middle school dances."  
I tried to swing my sword again, but he was just out of reach.  
WHIIIISH! A second projectile shot from somewhere behind Dr. Thorn. He didn't appear to move. It  
was as if someone invisible were standing behind him, throwing knives.  
Next to me, Bianca yelped. The second thorn impaled itself in the stone wall, half an inch from her face. Lara stood next to me guarding the little kids. Dr. Thorn advanced but she just sidestepped the attack, grabbing his hand and judo flipping him to the ground but before she could finish him off a boomerang-like projectile impaled her right shoulder. We shared a look. We had to protect the two demigods no matter what the cost.  
"All four of you will come with me," Dr. Thorn said. "Quietly. Obediently. If you make a single noise, if  
you call out for help or try to fight, I will show you just how accurately I can throw."


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

I didn't know what kind of monster Dr. Thorn was, but he was fast.  
Maybe I could defend myself if I could get my shield activated. All that it would take was a touch of my  
wrist-watch.

"Percy! Get the kids to safety and bring the others." Lara shouted over the Chaos.

"What about you?" I asked hesitantly. Truth be told I was kind of afraid of Lara. She was vicious and showed no mercy. I knew she could handle it but maybe not so much with her injuries.

"Don't worry about me get the others!" I chose the only option I had left and hoisted the demigods on my back and ran. Once we were a safe distance away I closed my eyes. I tried to concentrate. I pictured Grover's face. I focused on my feelings of fear and danger. Last summer, Grover had created an empathy link between us. He'd sent me visions in my dreams to let me know when he was in trouble. As far as I knew, we were still linked, but I'd never tried to contact Grover before. I didn't even know if it would work while Grover was awake.  
Hey, Grover! I thought, Thorn's kidnapping us! He's a poisonous spike-throwing maniac! Help!

I watched Lara as she fought off Thorn. She seemed to be getting the hang of dodging and deflecting those poisoned knives but I knew that wouldn't be good enough. Where are they? I thought. Dr. Thorn seemed to be talking to Lara now. Eventually she gave in and followed Thorn, me doing the same thing but from a safe distance. Dr. Thorn made a growling sound that definitely wasn't human. It made the hairs stand up on the back of Lara's neck, but she forced herself to keep walking and pretend she was being a good little captive. Meanwhile, I projected my thoughts like crazy—anything to get Grover's attention: Grover! Apples! Tin cans! Get your furry goat behind out here and bring some heavily armed friends!  
"Halt," Thorn said.  
The woods had opened up. We'd reached a cliff overlooking the sea. At least, I sensed the sea was  
down there, hundreds of feet below. I could hear the waves churning and I could smell the cold salty  
froth. But all I could see was mist and darkness.  
Dr. Thorn pushed her toward the edge. She stumbled but she managed to catch herself. She turned to face him.  
Thorn's two-tone eyes glittered hungrily. He pulled something from under his coat. At first, I thought it  
was a switchblade, but it was only a phone. He pressed the side button and said, "The package—it is  
ready to deliver."  
There was a garbled reply, and I realized Thorn was in walkie-talkie mode. This seemed way too  
modern and creepy—a monster using a mobile phone. Grover! I thought desperately. Come to me! A flicker of movement behind him, and another missile whistled so close to me that it nicked my ear.  
Something had sprung up behind Dr. Thorn—like a catapult, but more flexible… almost like a tail.  
"Unfortunately," Thorn said, "you are wanted alive, if possible. Otherwise you would already be dead."  
"Who?" Lara demanded. "  
"Aww," Dr. Thorn said. "Do not worry, little brat. You will be meeting my employer soon enough. Then  
you will have a brand-new family."  
"Luke," She said. "You work for Luke."  
Dr. Thorn's mouth twisted with distaste when she said the name of my old enemy—a former friend who'd  
tried to kill me several times. "You have no idea what is happening, Lara. I will let the  
General enlighten you. You are going to do him a great service tonight. He is looking forward to meeting  
you."  
"The General?" Lara asked.  
Thorn looked toward the horizon. "Ah, here we are. Your transportation."  
I turned and saw a light in the distance, a searchlight over the sea. Then I heard the chopping of  
helicopter blades getting louder and closer.  
"Where are you taking me?" Lara said.  
"You should be honored, my girl. You will have the opportunity to join a great army!"  
"The stirring of monsters." Dr. Thorn smiled evilly. "The worst of them, the most powerful, are now  
waking. Monsters that have not been seen in thousands of years. They will cause death and destruction  
the likes of which mortals have never known. And soon we shall have the most important monster of  
all—the one that shall bring about the downfall of Olympus!"  
"Okay," Bianca whispered to me. "He's completely nuts." **  
**I never got the chance to argue with her, because just then an invisible force slammed into me.

Looking back on it, Annabeth's move was brilliant. Wearing her cap of invisibility, she plowed into the di  
Angelo's and me, knocking us to the ground. For a split second, Dr. Thorn was taken by surprise, so his  
first volley of missiles zipped harmlessly over our heads. This gave Thalia and Grover a chance to  
advance from behind—Thalia wielding her magic shield, Aegis.  
If you've never seen Thalia run into battle, you have never been truly frightened. She uses a huge spear  
that expands from this collapsible Mace canister she carries in her pocket, but that's not the scary part.  
Her shield is modeled after one her dad Zeus uses—also called Aegis—a gift from Athena. The shield  
has the head of the gorgon Medusa molded into the bronze, and even though it won't turn you to stone,  
it's so horrible, most people will panic and run at the sight of it.  
Even Dr. Thorn winced and growled when he saw it.  
Thalia moved in with her spear. "For Zeus!"  
I thought Dr. Thorn was a goner. Thalia jabbed at his head, but he snarled and swatted the spear aside.  
His hand changed into an orange paw, with enormous claws that sparked against Thalia's shield as he  
slashed. If it hadn't been for Aegis, Thalia would've been sliced like a loaf of bread. As it was, she  
managed to roll backward and land on her feet.  
The sound of the helicopter was getting louder behind me, but I didn't dare look.

Before Thorn could unleash another attack on Thalia, Lara swooped in with her sword and jabbed at Thorn. He started throwing the poisoned daggers at her again but something seemed to disarm them every time they got remotely close to her and they would just drop to the ground. Her wound seemed to heal with every attack as she got stronger, Thorn got weaker. Thalia dived in and started stabbing at Thorn in unison with Lara's attacks. Annabeth and Grover both nodded to each other in agreement that they would both pounce on Thorn to give time for Lara and Thalia to finish him off.  
The manticore froze. For a moment, no one moved. There was only the swirl of snow and wind and the  
chopping of the helicopter blades.  
"No," Dr. Thorn said. "It cannot be—"  
His sentence was cut short when something shot past me like a streak of moonlight. A glowing silver  
arrow sprouted from Dr. Thorn's shoulder. He staggered backward, wailing in agony.  
"Curse you!" Thorn cried. He unleashed his spikes, dozens of them at once, into the woods where the  
arrow had come from, but just as fast, silvery arrows shot back in reply. It almost looked like the arrows  
had intercepted the thorns in midair and sliced them in two, but my eyes must've been playing tricks on  
me. No one, not even Apollo's kids at camp, could shoot with that much accuracy.  
The manticore pulled the arrow out of his shoulder with a howl of pain. His breathing was heavy. I tried  
to swipe at him with my sword, but he wasn't as injured as he looked. He dodged my attack and  
slammed his tail into my shield, knocking me aside.  
Then the archers came from the woods. They were girls, about a dozen of them. The youngest was  
maybe ten. The oldest, about fourteen, like me. They wore silvery ski parkas and jeans, and they were all  
armed with bows. They advanced on the manticore with determined expressions.  
"The Hunters!" Annabeth cried.  
Next to me, Lara muttered, "Oh, wonderful."  
I didn't have a chance to ask what she meant.  
One of the older archers stepped forward with her bow drawn. She was tall and graceful with coppery  
colored skin. Unlike the other girls, she had a silver circlet braided into the top of her long dark hair, so  
she looked like some kind of Persian princess. "Permission to kill, my lady?"  
I couldn't tell who she was talking to, because she kept her eyes on the manticore.  
The monster wailed. "This is not fair! Direct interference! It is against the Ancient Laws."  
"Not so," another girl said. This one was a little younger than me, maybe twelve or thirteen. She had  
auburn hair gathered back in a ponytail and strange eyes, silvery yellow like the moon. Her face was so  
beautiful it made me catch my breath, but her expression was stern and dangerous. "The hunting of all  
wild beasts is within my sphere. And you, foul creature, are a wild beast." She looked at the older girl  
with the circlet. "Zoe, permission granted."  
The manticore growled. "If I cannot have these alive, I shall have them dead!"  
He lunged at me, knowing I was weak and dazed.  
"No.'" Annabeth and Grover yelled in unison, and they charged at the monster.  
"Get back, half-blood!" the girl with the circlet said. "Get out of the line of fire!"  
But Annabeth and Grover did as planned and leaped onto the monster's back and Annabeth drove her knife into his mane. The manticore howled, turning in circles with his tail flailing as Annabeth and Grover hung on for dear life.  
"Fire!" Zoe ordered.  
"No!" I screamed.  
Lara tried to attack the monster again but she was pushed away by an invisible storm slamming her head into a boulder. Her head was gushing but she still somehow managed to stand up without the slightest sign of a concussion.  
The Hunters let their arrows fly. The first caught the manticore in the neck. Another hit his chest. The  
manticore staggered backward, wailing, "This is not the end, Huntress! You shall pay!"  
And before anyone could react, the monster, with Annabeth and Grover still on his back, leaped over the cliff and tumbled into the darkness.  
"Annabeth!" Lara yelled.  
"Grover!" I yelled.  
I started to run after them, but our enemies weren't done with us. There was a snap-snap-snap from the  
helicopter—the sound of gunfire.  
Most of the Hunters scattered as tiny holes appeared in the snow at their feet, but the girl with auburn  
hair just looked up calmly at the helicopter.  
"Mortals," she announced, "are not allowed to witness my hunt."  
She thrust out her hand, and the helicopter exploded into dust—no, not dust . The black metal dissolved  
into a flock of birds—ravens, which scattered into the night.  
The Hunters advanced on us.  
The one called Zoe stopped short when she saw Thalia. "You," she said with distaste.  
"Zoe Nightshade." Thalia's voice trembled with anger. "Perfect timing, as usual."  
Zoe scanned the rest of us. "Four half-bloods and a satyr, my lady."  
"Yes," the younger girl said. "Some of Chiron's campers, I see. Oh, and why isn't it Lara. I thought thee was stuck on a little island." Lara lunged at her but Thalia held her back whispering something into her ear.  
"Annabeth! Grover!" I yelled. "You have to let us save them!"  
The auburn-haired girl turned toward me. "I'm sorry, Percy Jackson, but your friends are beyond help."  
I tried to struggle to my feet, but a couple of the girls held me down.  
"You are in no condition to be hurling yourself off cliffs," the auburn-haired girl said.  
"Let me go!" I demanded. "Who do you think you are?"  
Zoe stepped forward as if to smack me.  
"No," the other girl ordered. "I sense no disrespect, Zoe. He is simply distraught. He does not  
understand."  
The young girl looked at me, her eyes colder and brighter than the winter moon. "I am Artemis," she  
said. "Goddess of the Hunt."


	9. Chapter 9

After seeing Dr. Thorn turn into a monster and plummet off the edge of a cliff with Annabeth and Grover, you'd think nothing else could shock me. But when this twelve-year-old girl told me she was the goddess Artemis, I said something real intelligent like, "Um… okay."

That was nothing compared to Lara. She was acting so rude. Well, not to Artemis but towards her hunters, "Thank you, Lady Artemis but I can only stay in the presence of these _abydocomists_! We don't want their, uh, opinions to rub off on the young demigods."

I don't even know what an _abydoc_ , heck, I can't even think the words is but it sounded rude.

"We have other things to worry about. Annabeth and Grover are gone!"

"Whoa," Bianca di Angelo said. "Hold up. Time out."

Everybody looked at her. She pointed her finger at all of us in turn, like she was trying to connect the dots. "Who… who are you people?"

Artemis's expression softened. "It might be a better question, my dear girl, to ask who are you! Who are your parents?"

Bianca glanced nervously at her brother, who was still staring in awe at Artemis.

"Our parents are dead," Bianca said. "We're orphans. There's a bank trust that pays for our school, but…"

She faltered. I guess she could tell from our faces that we didn't believe her.

"What?" she demanded. "I'm telling the truth."

"You are a half-blood," Zoe Nightshade said. Her accent was hard to place. It sounded old-fashioned, like she was reading from a really old book. "One of thy parents was mortal. The other was an Olympian."

"An Olympian… athlete?"

"No," Zoe said. "One of the gods."

"Cool!" said Nico.

"No!" Bianca's voice quavered. "This is not cool!"

Nico danced around like he needed to use the restroom. "Does Zeus really have lightning bolts that do six hundred damage? Does he get extra movement points for—"

"Nico, shut up!" Bianca put her hands to her face. "This is not your stupid Mythomagic game, okay? There are no gods!"

"Actually, they're and like it or not one of them is your dad/mum. Now, there is a safe place for people like us, Camp Half-Blood, but I'm not going to sugar coat anything. Even though I despise the alternative almost as much as I despise the monsters that try to kill us, you could always join Artemis and her…Hunters but you'd have to leave your brothers behind. I can't explain to you about Artemis' Hunters but I can tell you about Camp Half-blood if you'd give me a chance. Do you wish to believe us or not?" Lara said her words as bluntly as possible whilst trying to not insult the hunters as much as possible.

As anxious as I felt about Annabeth and Grover—all I wanted to do was search for them—I couldn't help feeling sorry for the di Angelo's. I remembered what it was like for me when I first learned I was a demigod.

Thalia must've been feeling something similar, because the anger in her eyes subsided a little bit. "Bianca, I know it's hard to believe. But the gods are still around. Trust me. They're immortal. And whenever they have kids with regular humans, kids like us, well… Our lives are dangerous."

"Dangerous," Bianca said, "like the girl and the boy who fell."

Thalia turned away. Even Artemis looked pained.

"Do not despair for Grover and Annabeth," the goddess said. "They were brave. If they can be found, I shall find them."

"Then why won't you let us go look for them?" I asked.

"They are gone. Can't you sense it, Son of Poseidon? Some magic is at work. I do not know exactly how or why, but your friends have vanished."

I still wanted to jump off the cliff and search for them, but I had a feeling that Artemis was right. Annabeth and Grover were gone. If they'd been down there in the sea, I thought, I'd be able to feel her presence.

"Oo!" Nico raised his hand. "What about Dr. Thorn? That was awesome how you shot him with arrows! Is he dead?"

"He was a manticore," Artemis said. "Hopefully he is destroyed for now, but monsters never truly die. They re-form over and over again, and they must be hunted whenever they reappear."

"Or they'll hunt us," Lara said.

Bianca di Angelo shivered. "That explains… Nico, you remember last summer, those guys who tried to attack us in the alley in DC?"

"And that bus driver," Nico said. "The one with the ram's horns. I told you that was real."

"That's why Grover has been watching you," I said. "To keep you safe, if you turned out to be half-bloods."

"Grover?" Bianca stared at us. "Is he a demigod?"

"Well, a satyr, actually." Lara explained about the hooves. I thought Bianca was going to faint right there.

"Lara, try not to be so blunt about it," Thalia said. "You're freaking her out."

"Hey, if she can't handle a simple explanation then what is she going to do when she sees Chiron?"

"Does it really matter? Bianca," I said, "we came here to help you. You and Nico need training to survive. Dr. Thorn won't be the last monster you meet. You need to come to camp."

"Camp?" she asked.

"Camp Half-Blood," I said. "It's where half-bloods learn to survive and stuff. You can join us, stay there year-round if you like."

"Sweet, let's go!" said Nico.

"Wait," Bianca shook her head. "I don't—"

"There is another option," Zoe said.

"No, there isn't!" Thalia said.

"Thalia, dear, you can't sugar coat what I already explained," She gritted her teeth when she said the last part, "Zoe, go on."

Thalia and Zoe glared at each other. I didn't know what they were talking about, but I could tell there was bad history between them. For some reason, they seriously hated each other.

"We've burdened these children enough," Artemis announced. "Zoe, we will rest here for a few hours. Raise the tents. Treat the wounded. Retrieve our guests' belongings from the school."

"Yes, my lady."

"And, Bianca, come with me. I would like to speak with you."

"What about me?" Nico asked.

Artemis considered the boy. "Perhaps you can show Lara how to play that card game you enjoy. I'm sure Lara would be happy to entertain you for a while… as a favor to me?"

Lara just about tripped over herself at Artemis' words. I could tell she didn't enjoy card games that much. Once again, she gritted her teeth. "You bet! Come on, Nico!"

Nico and Lara walked off toward the woods, talking about hit points and armor ratings and a bunch of other geeky stuff. Artemis led a confused-looking Bianca along the cliff. The Hunters began unpacking their knapsacks and making camp.

Zoe gave Thalia one more evil look, then left to oversee things.

As soon as she was gone, Thalia stamped her foot in frustration. "The nerve of those Hunters! They think they're so… Argh!"

"I'm with you," I said. "I don't trust—"

"Oh, you're with me?" Thalia turned on me furiously. "What were you thinking back there in the gym, Percy? You'd take on Dr. Thorn all by yourself? You knew he was a monster!"

"If we'd stuck together, we could've taken him without the Hunters getting involved. Annabeth and Grover might still be here. Did you think of that?"

My jaw clenched. I thought of some harsh things to say, and I might've said them too, but then I looked down and saw something navy blue lying in the snow at my feet. Annabeth's New York Yankees baseball cap.

Thalia didn't say another word. She wiped a tear from her cheek, turned, and marched off, leaving me alone with a trampled cap in the snow.

The Hunters set up their camping site in a matter of minutes. Seven large tents, all of silver silk, curved in a crescent around one side of a bonfire. One of the girls blew a silver dog whistle, and a dozen white wolves appeared out of the woods. They began circling the camp like guard dogs. The Hunters walked among them and fed them treats, completely unafraid, but I decided I would stick close to the tents. Falcons watched us from the trees, their eyes flashing in the firelight, and I got the feeling they were on guard duty, too. Even the weather seemed to bend to the goddess's will. The air was still cold, but the wind died down and the snow stopped falling, so it was almost pleasant sitting by the fire.

Almost… except for the pain in my shoulder and the guilt weighing me down. I couldn't believe Annabeth was gone. And as angry as I was at Thalia, I had a sinking feeling that she was right. It was my fault.

What had Annabeth wanted to tell me in the gym? Something serious, she'd said. Now I might never find out. I thought about how we'd danced together for half a song, and my heart felt even heavier.

I watched Thalia pacing in the snow at the edge of camp, walking among the wolves without fear. She stopped and looked back at Westover Hall, which was now completely dark, looming on the hillside beyond the woods. I wondered what she was thinking.

Seven years ago, Thalia had been turned into a pine tree by her father, to prevent her from dying. She'd stood her ground against an army of monsters on top of Half-Blood Hill in order to give her friends Luke and Annabeth time to escape. She'd only been back as a human for a few months now, and once in a while she would stand so motionless you'd think she was still a tree.

Finally, one of the Hunters brought me my backpack. Lara and Nico came back from their walk, and Lara helped me fix up my wounded arm.

"It's green!" Nico said with delight.

"Hold still," Lara told me. "Here, eat some ambrosia while I clean that out."

I winced as she dressed the wound, but the ambrosia square helped. It tasted like homemade brownie, dissolving in my mouth and sending a warm feeling through my whole body. Between that and the magic salve Lara used, my shoulder felt better within a couple of minutes.

Nico rummaged through his own bag, which the Hunters had apparently packed for him, though how they'd snuck into Westover Hall unseen, I didn't know. Nico laid out a bunch of figurines in the snow—little battle replicas of Greek gods and heroes. I recognized Zeus with a lightning bolt, Ares with a spear, Apollo with his sun chariot.

"Big collection," I said.

Nico grinned. "I've got almost all of them, plus their holographic cards! Well, except for a few really rare ones."

"You've been playing this game a long time?"

"Just this year. Before that…" He knit his eyebrows.

"What?" I asked.

"I forget. That's weird."

He looked unsettled, but it didn't last long. "Hey, can I see that sword you were using?"

I showed him Riptide, and explained how it turned from a pen into a sword just by uncapping it.

"Cool! Does it ever run out of ink?"

"Um, well, I don't actually write with it."

"Are you really the son of Poseidon?"

"Well, yeah."

"Can you surf really well, then?"

I looked at Lara, who was trying hard not to laugh.

"Jeez, Nico," I said. "I've never really tried."

He went on asking questions. Did I fight a lot with Thalia, since she was a daughter of Zeus? (I didn't answer that one.) If Annabeth's mother was Athena, the goddess of wisdom, then why didn't Annabeth know better than to fall off a cliff? (I tried not to strangle Nico for asking that one.) Was Annabeth my girlfriend? (At this point, I was ready to stick the kid in a meat-flavored sack and throw him to the wolves.)

I figured any second he was going to ask me how many hit points I had, and I'd lose my cool completely, but then Zoe Nightshade came up to us.

"Percy Jackson."

She had dark brown eyes and a slightly upturned nose. With her silver circlet and her proud expression, she looked so much like royalty that I had to resist the urge to sit up straight and say "Yes, ma'am." She studied me distastefully, like I was a bag of dirty laundry she'd been sent to fetch.

"Come with me," she said. "Lady Artemis wishes to speak with thee."

Zoe led me to the last tent, which looked no different from the others, and waved me inside. Bianca di Angelo was seated next to the auburn-haired girl, who I still had trouble thinking of as Artemis.

The inside of the tent was warm and comfortable. Silk rugs and pillows covered the floor. In the center, a golden brazier of fire seemed to burn without fuel or smoke. Behind the goddess, on a polished oak display stand, was her huge silver bow, carved to resemble gazelle horns. The walls were hung with animal pelts: black bear, tiger, and several others I didn't recognize. I figured an animal rights activist would've had a heart attack looking at all those rare skins, but maybe since Artemis was the goddess of the hunt, she could replenish whatever she shot. I thought she had another animal pelt lying next to her, and then I realized it was a live animal—a deer with glittering fur and silver horns, its head resting contentedly in Artemis's lap.

"Join us, Percy Jackson," the goddess said.

I sat across from her on the tent floor. The goddess studied me, which made me uncomfortable. She had such old eyes for a young girl.

"Are you surprised by my age?" she asked.

"Uh… a little."

"I could appear as a grown woman, or a blazing fire, or anything else I want, but this is what I prefer. This is the average age of my Hunters, and all young maidens for whom I am patron, before they go astray."

"Go astray?" I asked.

"Grow up. Become smitten with boys. Become silly, preoccupied, insecure. Forget themselves."

"Oh."

Zoe sat down at Artemis's right. She glared at me as if all the stuff Artemis had just said was my fault, like I'd invented the idea of being a guy.

"You must forgive my Hunters if they do not welcome you," Artemis said. "It is very rare that we would have boys in this camp. Boys are usually forbidden to have any contact with the Hunters. The last one to see this camp…" She looked at Zoe. "Which one was it?"

"That boy in Colorado," Zoe said. "You turned him into a jackalope."

"Ah, yes." Artemis nodded, satisfied. "I enjoy making jackalopes. At any rate, Percy, I've asked you here so that you might tell me more of the manticore. Bianca has reported some of the… mmm, disturbing things the monster said. But she may not have understood them. I'd like to hear them from you."

And so I told her.

When I was done, Artemis put her hand thoughtfully on her silver bow. "I feared this was the answer."

Zoe sat forward. "The scent, my lady?"

"Yes."

"What scent?" I asked.

"Things are stirring that I have not hunted in millennia," Artemis murmured. "Prey so old I have nearly forgotten."

She stared at me intently. "We came here tonight sensing the manticore, but he was not the one I seek. Tell me again, exactly what Dr. Thorn said."

"Um, 'I hate middle school dances.'"

"No, no. After that."

"He said somebody called the General was going to explain things to me."

Zoe's face paled. She turned to Artemis and started to say something, but Artemis raised her hand.

"Go on, Percy," the goddess said.

"Well, then Thorn was talking about the Great Stir Pot—"

"Stirring," Bianca corrected.

"Yeah. And he said, 'Soon we shall have the most important monster of all—the one that shall bring about the downfall of Olympus.'"

The goddess was so still she could've been a statue.

"Maybe he was lying," I said.

Artemis shook her head. "No. He was not. I've been too slow to see the signs. I must hunt this monster."

Zoe looked like she was trying very hard not to be afraid, but she nodded. "We will leave right away, my lady."

"No, Zoe. I must do this alone."

"But, Artemis—"

"This task is too dangerous even for the Hunters. You know where I must start my search. You cannot go there with me."

"As… as you wish, my lady."

"I will find this creature," Artemis vowed. "And I shall bring it back to Olympus by winter solstice. It will be all the proof I need to convince the Council of the Gods of how much danger we are in."

"You know what the monster is?" I asked.

Artemis gripped her bow. "Let us pray I am wrong."

"Can goddesses pray?" I asked, because I'd never really thought about that.

A flicker of a smile played across Artemis's lips. "Before I go, Percy Jackson, I have a small task for you."

"Does it involve getting turned into a jackalope?"

"Sadly, no. I want you to escort the Hunters back to Camp Half-Blood. They can stay there in safety until I return."

"What?" Zoe' blurted out. "But, Artemis, we hate that place. The last time we stayed there—"

"Yes, I know," Artemis said. "But I'm sure Dionysus will not hold a grudge just because of a little, ah, misunderstanding. It's your right to use Cabin Eight whenever you are in need. Besides, I hear they rebuilt the cabins you burned down."

Zoe muttered something about foolish campers.

"And now there is one last decision to make." Artemis turned to Bianca. "Have you made up your mind, my girl?"

Bianca hesitated. "I'm still thinking about it."

"Wait," I said. "Thinking about what?"

"They… they've invited me to join the Hunt."

"What? But you can't! You have to come to Camp Half-Blood so Chiron can train you. It's the only way you can learn to survive."

"It is not the only way for a girl," Zoe said.

I couldn't believe I was hearing this. "Bianca, camp is cool! It's got a pegasus stable and a sword-fighting arena and… I mean, what do you get by joining the Hunters?"

"To begin with," Zoe said, "immortality."

I stared at her, then at Artemis. "She's kidding, right?"

"Zoe rarely kids about anything," Artemis said. "My Hunters follow me on my adventures. They are my maidservants, my companions, my sisters-in-arms. Once they swear loyalty to me, they are indeed immortal… unless they fall in battle, which is unlikely. Or break their oath."

"What oath?" I said.

"To foreswear romantic love forever," Artemis said. "To never grow up, never get married. To be a maiden eternally."

"Like you?"

The goddess nodded.

I tried to imagine what she was saying. Being immortal. Hanging out with only middle-school girls forever. I couldn't get my mind around it. "So you just go around the country recruiting half-bloods—"

"Not just half-bloods," Zoe interrupted. "Lady Artemis does not discriminate by birth. All who honor the goddess may join. Half-bloods, nymphs, mortals—"

"Which are you, then?"

Anger flashed in Zoe's eyes. "That is not thy concern, boy. The point is Bianca may join if she wishes. It is her choice."

"Bianca, this is crazy," I said. "What about your brother? Nico can't be a Hunter."

"Certainly not," Artemis agreed. "He will go to camp. Unfortunately, that's the best boys can do."

"Hey!" I protested.

"You can see him from time to time," Artemis assured Bianca. "But you will be free of responsibility. He will have the camp counselors to take care of him. And you will have a new family. Us."

"A new family," Bianca repeated dreamily. "Free of responsibility."

"Bianca, you can't do this," I said. "It's nuts."

She looked at Zoe. "Is it worth it?"

Zoe nodded. "It is."

"What do I have to do?"

"Say this," Zoe told her, " 'I pledge myself to the goddess Artemis.'"

"I… I pledge myself to the goddess Artemis."

"'I turn my back on the company of men, accept eternal maidenhood, and join the Hunt.'"

Bianca repeated the lines. "That's it?"

Zoe nodded. "If Lady Artemis accepts thy pledge, then it is binding."

"I accept it," Artemis said.

The flames in the brazier brightened, casting a silver glow over the room. Bianca looked no different, but she took a deep breath and opened her eyes wide. "I feel… stronger."

"Welcome, sister," Zoe said.

"Remember your pledge," Artemis said. "It is now your life."

I couldn't speak. I felt like a trespasser. And a complete failure. I couldn't believe I'd come all this way and suffered so much only to lose Bianca to some eternal girls' club.

"Do not despair, Percy Jackson," Artemis said. "You will still get to show the di Angelo's your camp. And if Nico so chooses, he can stay there."

"Great," I said, trying not to sound surly. "How are we supposed to get there?"

Artemis closed her eyes. "Dawn is approaching. Zoe, break camp. You must get to Long Island quickly and safely. I shall summon a ride from my brother."

Zoe didn't look real happy about this idea, but she nodded and told Bianca to follow her. As she was leaving, Bianca paused in front of me. "I'm sorry, Percy. But I want this. I really, really do."

Then she was gone, and I was left alone with the twelve-year-old goddess.

"So," I said glumly. "We're going to get a ride from your brother, huh?"

Artemis's silver eyes gleamed. "Yes, boy. You see, Bianca di Angelo is not the only one with an annoying brother. It's time for you to meet my irresponsible twin, Apollo." 


	10. Chapter 10

Artemis assured us that dawn was coming, but you could've fooled me. It was colder and darker and snowier than ever. Up on the hill, Westover Hall's windows were completely lightless. I wondered if the teachers had even noticed the di Angelo's and Dr. Thorn were missing yet. I didn't want to be around when they did. With my luck, the only name Mrs. Gottschalk would remember was "Percy Jackson," and then I'd be the subject of a nationwide manhunt… again.

The Hunters broke camp as quickly as they'd set it up. I stood shivering in the snow (unlike the Hunters, who didn't seem to feel at all uncomfortable), and Artemis stared into the east like she was expecting something. Bianca sat off to one side, talking with Nico. I could tell from his gloomy face that she was explaining her decision to join the Hunt. I couldn't help thinking how selfish it was of her, abandoning her brother like that.

Thalia and Lara came up and huddled around me, anxious to hear what had happened in my audience with the goddess.

When I told them, Lara turned pale.

"How'd they even show up here?" I wondered. "I mean, they just appeared out of nowhere."

"And Bianca joined them," Thalia said, disgusted. "It's all Zoe's fault. That stuck-up, no good—"

"Who can blame her?" Lara said. "Nico has dreamed of this moment his whole lif but Bianca didn't want this to happen. She has had to hold responsibility for her little brother for as long as she can remember and now she has been offered freedom. Would you take it if you were in her position?"

Thalia rolled her eyes. "Not as long as Zoe is there."

"I completely agree but Bianca doesn't know Zoe as well as we do," Lara suggested.

"I still don't agree with her," said Thalia.

"Of course you don't," Lara said jokily. "Your far too stubborn."

Finally the sky began to lighten. Artemis muttered, "About time. He's so-o-o lazy during the winter."

"You're, um, waiting for sunrise?" I asked.

"For my brother. Yes."

I didn't want to be rude. I mean, I knew the legends about Apollo—or sometimes Helios—driving a big sun chariot across the sky. But I also knew that the sun was really a star about a zillion miles away. I'd gotten used to some of the Greek myths being true, but still… I didn't see how Apollo could drive the sun.

"It's not exactly as you think," Artemis said, like she was reading my mind.

"Oh, okay." I started to relax. "So, it's not like he'll be pulling up in a—"

There was a sudden burst of light on the horizon. A blast of warmth.

"Don't look," Artemis advised. "Not until he parks."

Parks?

I averted my eyes, and saw that the other kids were doing the same. The light and warmth intensified until my winter coat felt like it was melting off of me. Then suddenly the light died.

I looked. And I couldn't believe it. It was my car. Well, the car I wanted, anyway. A red convertible Maserati Spyder. It was so awesome it glowed. Then I realized it was glowing because the metal was hot. The snow had melted around the Maserati in a perfect circle, which explained why I was now standing on green grass and my shoes were wet.

The driver got out, smiling. He looked about seventeen or eighteen, and for a second, I had the uneasy feeling it was Luke, my old enemy. This guy had the same sandy hair and outdoorsy good looks. But it wasn't Luke. This guy was taller, with no scar on his face like Luke's. His smile was brighter and more playful. (Luke didn't do much more than scowl and sneer these days.) The Maserati driver wore jeans and loafers and a sleeveless T-shirt.

"Wow," Thalia muttered. "Apollo is hot."

"He's the sun god," I said.

"That's not what I meant."

"Little sister!" Apollo called. If his teeth were any whiter he could've blinded us without the sun car. "What's up? You never call. You never write. I was getting worried!"

Artemis sighed. "I'm fine, Apollo. And I am not your little sister."

"Hey, I was born first."

"We're twins! How many millennia do we have to argue—"

"So what's up?" he interrupted. "Got the girls with you, I see. You all need some tips on archery?"

Artemis grit her teeth. "I need a favor. I have some hunting to do, alone. I need you to take my companions to Camp Half-Blood."

"Sure, sis!" Then he raised his hands in a stop everything gesture. "I feel a haiku coming on."

The Hunters all groaned. Apparently, they'd met Apollo before.

He cleared his throat and held up one hand dramatically.

"Green grass breaks through snow.

Artemis pleads for my help.

I am so cool."

He grinned at us, waiting for applause.

"That last line was only four syllables," Artemis said.

Apollo frowned. "Was it?"

"Yes. What about I am so big-headed?"

"No, no, that's six syllables. Hmm." He started muttering to himself.

Zoe Nightshade turned to us. "Lord Apollo has been going through this haiku phase ever since he visited Japan. 'Tis not as bad as the time he visited Limerick. If I'd had to hear one more poem that started with, There once was a goddess from Sparta—"

"I've got it!" Apollo announced. "I am so awesome. That's five syllables!" He bowed, looking very pleased with himself.

"And now, sis. Transportation for the Hunters, you say? Good timing. I was just about ready to roll."

"These demigods will also need a ride," Artemis said, pointing to us. "Some of Chiron's campers."

"No problem!" Apollo checked us out. "Let's see… Thalia, right? I've heard all about you."

Thalia blushed. "Hi, Lord Apollo."

"Zeus's girl, yes? Makes you my half-sister. Used to be a tree, didn't you? Glad you're back. I hate it when pretty girls turn into trees. Man, I remember one time—"

"Brother," Artemis said. "You should get going."

"Oh, right." Then he looked at me, and his eyes narrowed. "Percy Jackson?"

"Yeah. I mean… yes, sir."

It seemed weird calling a teenager "sir," but I'd learned to be careful with immortals. They tended to get offended easily. Then they blew stuff up.

Apollo studied me, but he didn't say anything, which I found a little creepy.

"Lara! Glad to see you got off that island in one piece! I hate it when pretty girls try to get themselves killed."  
instead of blushing like Thalia did, Lara just rolled her eyes. "Do you have some kind of need to hit on every girl you walk past?" She said this rhetorically...Yeah, I think that's the word but for some reason Apollo seemed to take it as a serious question. Dumbfounded, he decided to speak.

"Well!" he said at last. "We'd better load up, huh? Ride only goes one way—west. And if you miss it, you miss it."

I looked at the Maserati, which would seat two people max. There were about twenty of us.

"Cool car," Nico said.

"Thanks, kid," Apollo said.

"But how will we all fit?"

"Oh." Apollo seemed to notice the problem for the first time. "Well, yeah. I hate to change out of sports-car mode, but I suppose…"

He took out his car keys and beeped the security alarm button. Chirp, chirp.

For a moment, the car glowed brightly again. When the glare died, the Maserati had been replaced by one of those Turtle Top shuttle buses like we used for school basketball games.

"Right," he said. "Everybody in."

Zoe ordered the Hunters to start loading. She picked up her camping pack, and Apollo said, "Here, sweetheart. Let me get that."

Zoe recoiled. Her eyes flashed murderously.

"Brother," Artemis chided. "You do not help my Hunters. You do not look at, talk to, or flirt with my Hunters. And you do not call them sweetheart."

Apollo spread his hands. "Sorry. I forgot. Hey, sis, where are you off to, anyway?"

"Hunting," Artemis said. "It's none of your business."

"I'll find out. I see all. Know all."

Artemis snorted. "Just drop them off, Apollo. And no messing around!"

"No, no! I never mess around."

Artemis rolled her eyes, then looked at us. "I will see you by winter solstice. Zoe, you are in charge of the Hunters. Do well. Do as I would do."

Zoe straightened. "Yes, my lady."

Artemis knelt and touched the ground as if looking for tracks. When she rose, she looked troubled. "So much danger. The beast must be found."

She sprinted toward the woods and melted into the snow and shadows.

Apollo turned and grinned, jangling the car keys on his finger. "So," he said. "Who wants to drive?"

The Hunters piled into the van. They all crammed into the back so they'd be as far away as possible from Apollo and the rest of us highly infectious males, Bianca sat with them, leaving her little brother to hang in the front with us, which seemed cold to me, but Nico didn't seem to mind.

"This is so cool!" Nico said, jumping up and down in the driver's seat. "Is this really the sun? I thought Helios and Selene were the sun and moon gods. How come sometimes it's them and sometimes it's you and Artemis?"

"Downsizing," Apollo said. "The Romans started it. They couldn't afford all those temple sacrifices, so they laid off Helios and Selene and folded their duties into our job descriptions. My sis got the moon. I got the sun. It was pretty annoying at first, but at least I got this cool car."

"But how does it work?" Nico asked. "I thought the sun was a big fiery ball of gas!"

Apollo chuckled and ruffled Nico's hair. "That rumor probably got started because Artemis used to call me a big fiery ball of gas. Seriously, kid, it depends on whether you're talking astronomy or philosophy. You want to talk astronomy? Bah, what fun is that? You want to talk about how humans think about the sun? Ah, now that's more interesting. They've got a lot riding on the sun… er, so to speak. It keeps them warm, grows their crops, powers engines, makes everything look, well, sunnier. This chariot is built out of human dreams about the sun, kid. It's as old as Western Civilization. Every day, it drives across the sky from east to west, lighting up all those puny little mortal lives. The chariot is a manifestation of the sun's power, the way mortals perceive it. Make sense?"

Nico shook his head. "No."

"Well then, just think of it as a really powerful, really dangerous solar car."

"Can I drive?"

"No. Too young."

"Oo! Oo!" Lara raised her hand.

"Mm, no," Apollo said. "Too young." He looked past me and focused on Thalia.

"Daughter of Zeus!" he said. "Lord of the sky. Perfect."

"Oh, no." Thalia shook her head. "No, thanks."

"C'mon," Apollo said. "How old are you?"

Thalia hesitated. "I don't know."

It was sad, but true. She'd been turned into a tree when she was twelve, but that had been seven years ago. So she should be nineteen, if you went by years. But she still felt like she was twelve, and if you looked at her, she seemed somewhere in between. The best Chiron could figure, she had kept aging while in tree form, but much more slowly.

Apollo tapped his finger to his lips. "You're fifteen, almost sixteen."

"How do you know that?"

"Hey, I'm the god of prophecy. I know stuff. You'll turn sixteen in about a week."

"That's my birthday! December twenty-second."

"Which means you're old enough now to drive with a learner's permit!"

Thalia shifted her feet nervously. "Uh—"

"I know what you're going to say," Apollo said. "You don't deserve an honor like driving the sun chariot."

"That's not what I was going to say."

"Don't sweat it! Maine to Long Island is a really short trip, and don't worry about what happened to the last kid I trained. You're Zeus's daughter. He's not going to blast you out of the sky."

Apollo laughed good-naturedly. The rest of us didn't join him.

Thalia tried to protest, but Apollo was absolutely not going to take "no" for an answer. He hit a button on the dashboard, and a sign popped up along the top of the windshield. I had to read it backward (which, for a dyslexic, really isn't that different than reading forward). I was pretty sure it said WARNING: STUDENT DRIVER.

"Take it away!" Apollo told Thalia. "You're gonna be a natural!"

I'll admit I was jealous. I couldn't wait to start driving. A couple of times that fall, my mom had taken me out to Montauk when the beach road was empty, and she'd let me try out her Mazda. I mean, yeah, that was a Japanese compact, and this was the sun chariot, but how different could it be?

"Speed equals heat," Apollo advised. "So start slowly, and make sure you've got good altitude before you really open her up."

Thalia gripped the wheel so tight her knuckles turned white. She looked like she was going to be sick.

"What's wrong?" I asked her.

"Nothing," she said shakily. "N-nothing is wrong."

She pulled back on the wheel. It tilted, and the bus lurched upward so fast I fell back and crashed against something soft.

"Ow" Lara said.

"Sorry."

"Slower!" Apollo said.

"Sorry!" Thalia said. "I've got it under control!"

I managed to get to my feet. Looking out the window, I saw a smoking ring of trees from the clearing where we'd taken off.

"Thalia," I said, "lighten up on the accelerator."

"I've got it, Percy," she said, gritting her teeth. But she kept it floored.

"Loosen up," I told her.

"I'm loose!" Thalia said. She was so stiff she looked like she was made out of plywood.

"We need to veer south for Long Island," Apollo said. "Hang a left."

Thalia jerked the wheel and again threw me into Lara, who yelped.

"The other left," Apollo suggested.

I made the mistake of looking out the window again. We were at airplane height now—so high the sky was starting to look black.

"Ah…" Apollo said, and I got the feeling he was forcing himself to sound calm. "A little lower, sweetheart. Cape Cod is freezing over."

Thalia tilted the wheel. Her face was chalk white, her forehead beaded with sweat. Something was definitely wrong. I'd never seen her like this.

The bus pitched down and somebody screamed. Maybe it was me. Now we were heading straight toward the Atlantic Ocean at a thousand miles an hour, the New England coastline off to our right. And it was getting hot in the bus.

Apollo had been thrown somewhere in the back of the bus, but he started climbing up the rows of seats.

"Take the wheel!" I begged him.

"No worries," Apollo said. He looked plenty worried. "She just has to learn to—WHOA!"

I saw what he was seeing. Down below us was a little snow-covered New England town. At least, it used to be snow-covered. As I watched, the snow melted off the trees and the roofs and the lawns. The white steeple on a church turned brown and started to smolder. Little plumes of smoke, like birthday candles, were popping up all over the town. Trees and rooftops were catching fire.

"Pull up!" I yelled.

There was a wild light in Thalia's eyes. She yanked back on the wheel, and I held on this time. As we zoomed up, I could see through the back window that the fires in the town were being snuffed out by the sudden blast of cold.

"There!" Apollo pointed. "Long Island, dead ahead. Let's slow down, dear. 'Dead' is only an expression."

Thalia was thundering toward the coastline of northern Long Island. There was Camp Half-Blood: the valley, the woods, the beach. I could see the dining pavilion and cabins and the amphitheater.

"I'm under control," Thalia muttered. "I'm under control."

We were only a few hundred yards away now.

"Brake," Apollo said.

"I can do this."

"BRAKE!"

Thalia slammed her foot on the brake, and the sun bus pitched forward at a forty-five-degree angle, slamming into the Camp Half-Blood canoe lake with a huge FLOOOOOOSH! Steam billowed up, sending several frightened naiads scrambling out of the water with half-woven wicker baskets.

The bus bobbed to the surface, along with a couple of capsized, half-melted canoes.

"Well," said Apollo with a brave smile. "You were right, my dear. You had everything under control! Let's go see if we boiled anyone important, shall we?"


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

I'd never seen Camp Half-Blood in winter before, and the snow surprised me.

See, the camp has the ultimate magic climate control. Nothing gets inside the borders unless the director, Mr. D, wants it to. I thought it would be warm and sunny, but instead the snow had been allowed to fall lightly. Frost covered the chariot track and the strawberry fields. The cabins were decorated with tiny flickering lights, like Christmas lights, except they seemed to be balls of real fire. More lights glowed in the woods, and weirdest of all, a fire flickered in the attic window of the Big House, where the Oracle dwelt, imprisoned in an old mummified body. I wondered if the spirit of Delphi was roasting marshmallows up there or something.

"Whoa," Nico said as he climbed off the bus. "Is that a climbing wall?"

"Yeah," I said.

"Why is there lava pouring down it?"

"Little extra challenge. Come on. I'll introduce you to Chiron. Zoe, have you met—"

"I know Chiron," Zoe said stiffly. "Tell him we will be in Cabin Eight. Hunters, follow me."

"I'll show you the way," Lara offered.

"We know the way."

"Yeah, but last time you came I heard you burnt down a lot of cabins so I'm following you, just to make sure you don't try anything else." Lara said daring her to object.

Zoe rolled her eyes, but I guess she figured there was no getting rid of Lara. The Hunters shouldered their packs and their bows and headed off toward the cabins. As Bianca di Angelo was leaving, she leaned over and whispered something in her brother's ear. She looked at him for an answer, but Nico just scowled and turned away.

"Take care, sweethearts!" Apollo called after the Hunters. He winked at me. "Watch out for those prophecies, Percy. I'll see you soon."

"What do you mean?"

Instead of answering, he hopped back in the bus. "Later, Thalia," he called. "And, uh, be good!"

He gave her a wicked smile, as if he knew something she didn't. Then he closed the doors and revved the engine. I turned aside as the sun chariot took off in a blast of heat. When I looked back, the lake was steaming. A red Maserati soared over the woods, glowing brighter and climbing higher until it disappeared in a ray of sunlight.

Nico was still looking grumpy. I wondered what his sister had told him.

"Who's Chiron?" he asked. "I don't have his figurine."

"Our activities director," I said. "He's… well, you'll see."

"If those Hunter girls don't like him," Nico grumbled, "that's good enough for me. Let's go."

The second thing that surprised me about camp was how empty it was. I mean, I knew most half-bloods only trained during the summer. Just the year-rounders would be here—the ones who didn't have homes to go to, or would get attacked by monsters too much if they left. But there didn't even seem to be many of them, either.

I spotted Charles Beckendorf from the Hephaestus cabin stoking the forge outside the camp armory. The Stoll brothers, Travis and Connor, from the Hermes cabin, were picking the lock on the camp store. A few kids from the Ares cabin were having a snowball fight with the wood nymphs at the edge of the forest. That was about it. Even my old rival from the Ares cabin, Clarisse, didn't seem to be around.

The Big House was decorated with strings of red and yellow fireballs that warmed the porch but didn't seem to catch anything on fire. Inside, flames crackled in the hearth. The air smelled like hot chocolate. Mr. D, the camp director, and Chiron were playing a quiet game of cards in the parlor.

Chiron's brown beard was shaggier for the winter. His curly hair had grown a little longer. He wasn't posing as a teacher this year, so I guess he could afford to be casual. He wore a fuzzy sweater with a hoofprint design on it, and he had a blanket on his lap that almost hid his wheelchair completely.

He smiled when he saw us. "Percy! Thalia! Ah, and this must be—"

"Nico di Angelo," I said. "He and his sister are half-bloods."

Chiron breathed a sigh of relief. "You succeeded, then."

"Well…"

His smile melted. "What's wrong? And where is Annabeth?"

"Oh, dear," Mr. D said in a bored voice, "Not another one lost."

I'd been trying not to pay attention to Mr. D, but he was kind of hard to ignore in his neon orange leopard-skin warm-up suit and his purple running shoes. (Like Mr. D had ever run a day in his immortal life.) A golden laurel wreath was tilted sideways on his curly black hair, which must've meant he'd won the last hand of cards.

"What do you mean?" Thalia asked. "Who else is lost?"

Just then, Lara walked into the room, frowning way too much. "The _Hunters_ are well, here."

Chiron frowned. "The Hunters, eh? I see we have much to talk about." He glanced at Nico. "Lara, perhaps you should take our young friend to the den and show him our orientation film."

"But… Oh, right. Fine but the truth will be revealed in the end. You might as well tell him. The sooner the better."

"Orientation film?" Nico asked. "Is it G or PG? Cause Bianca is kind of strict—"

"It's PG-13," Lara said.

"Cool!" Nico happily followed her out of the room.

"Now," Chiron said to Thalia and me, "perhaps you two should sit down and tell us the whole story."

When we were done, Chiron turned to Mr. D. "We should launch a search for Annabeth and Grover immediately."

"I'll go," Thalia and I said at the same time.

Mr. D sniffed. "Certainly not!"

Thalia and I both started complaining, but Mr. D held up his hand. He had that purplish angry fire in his eyes that usually meant something bad and godly was going to happen if we didn't shut up.

"From what you have told me," Mr. D said, "we have broken even on this escapade. We have, ah, regrettably lost Annie Bell—"

"Annabeth," I snapped. She'd gone to camp since she was seven, and still Mr. D pretended not to know her name.

"Yes, yes and Grover," he said. "And you procured a small annoying boy to replace her. So, I see no point risking further half-bloods on a ridiculous rescue. The possibility is very great that this Annie girl and the failing satyr are dead."

I wanted to strangle Mr. D. It wasn't fair Zeus had sent him here to dry out as camp director for a hundred years. It was meant to be a punishment for Mr. D's bad behavior on Olympus, but it ended up being a punishment for all of us.

"Annabeth and Grover may be alive," Chiron said, but I could tell he was having trouble sounding upbeat. He'd practically raised Annabeth all those years she was a year-round camper, before she'd given living with her dad and stepmom a second try. "She's very bright. If… if our enemies have her, she will try to play for time. She may even pretend to cooperate and Grover will be fine. I'm sure."

"That's right," Thalia said. "Luke would want her and Grover alive."

"In which case" said Mr. D, "I'm afraid they will have to be smart enough to escape on her own."

I got up from the table.

"Percy." Chiron's tone was full of warning. In the back of my mind, I knew Mr. D was not somebody to mess with. Even if you were an impulsive ADHD kid like me, he wouldn't give you any slack. But I was so angry I didn't care.

"You're glad to lose another camper," I said. "You'd like it if we all disappeared!"

Mr. D stifled a yawn. "You have a point?"

"Yeah," I growled. "Just because you were sent here as a punishment doesn't mean you have to be a lazy jerk! This is your civilization, too. Maybe you could try helping out a little!"

For a second, there was no sound except the crackle of the fire. The light reflected in Mr. D's eyes, giving him a sinister look. He opened his mouth to say something—probably a curse that would blast me to smithereens—when Nico burst into the room, followed by Lara.

"SO COOL!" Nico yelled, holding his hands out to Chiron. "You're… you're a centaur!"

Chiron managed a nervous smile. "Yes, Mr. di Angelo, if you please. Though, I prefer to stay in human form in this wheelchair for, ah, first encounters."

"And, whoa!" He looked at Mr. D. "You're the wine dude? No way!"

Mr. D turned his eyes away from me and gave Nico a look of loathing. "The wine dude?"

"Dionysus, right? Oh, wow! I've got your figurine."

"My figurine."

"In my game, Mythomagic. And a holofoil card, too! And even though you've only got like five hundred attack points and everybody thinks you're the lamest god card, I totally think your powers are sweet!"

"Ah." Mr. D seemed truly perplexed, which probably saved my life. "Well, that's… gratifying."

"Percy," Chiron said quickly, "you and Thalia go down to the cabins. Inform the campers we'll be playing capture the flag tomorrow evening."

"Capture the flag?" I asked. "But we don't have enough—"

"It is a tradition," Chiron said. "A friendly match, whenever the Hunters visit."

"Yeah," Thalia muttered. "I bet it's real friendly."

Chiron jerked his head toward Mr. D, who was still frowning as Nico talked about how many defense points all the gods had in his game. "Run along now," Chiron told us.

"Oh, right," Thalia said. "Come on, Percy."

She hauled me out of the Big House before Dionysus could remember that he wanted to kill me.

"You've already got Ares on your bad side," Thalia reminded me as we trudged toward the cabins. "You need another immortal enemy?"

She was right. My first summer as a camper, I'd gotten in a fight with Ares, and now he and all his children wanted to kill me. I didn't need to make Dionysus mad, too.

"Sorry," I said. "I couldn't help it. It's just so unfair."

She stopped by the armory and looked out across the valley, toward the top of Half-Blood Hill. Her pine tree was still there, the Golden Fleece glittering in its lowest branch. The tree's magic still protected the borders of camp, but it no longer used Thalia's spirit for power.

"Percy, everything is unfair," Thalia muttered. "Sometimes I wish…"

She didn't finish, but her tone was so sad I felt sorry for her. With her ragged black hair and her black punk clothes, an old wool overcoat wrapped around her, she looked like some kind of huge raven, completely out of place in the white landscape.

"We'll get Annabeth and Grover back," I promised. "I just don't know how yet."

"First I found out that Luke is lost," she said. "Now Grover and Annabeth—"

"Don't think like that."

"You're right." She straightened up. "We'll find a way."

Over at the basketball court, a few of the Hunters were shooting hoops. One of them was arguing with a guy from the Ares cabin. The Ares kid had his hand on his sword and the Hunter girl looked like she was going to exchange her basketball for a bow and arrow any second.

"I'll break that up," Thalia said. "You circulate around the cabins. Tell everybody about capture the flag tomorrow."

"All right. You should be team captain."

"No, no," she said. "You've been at camp longer. You do it."

"We can, uh… co-captain or something."

She looked about as comfortable with that as I felt, but she nodded.

As she headed for the court, I said, "Hey, Thalia."

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry about what happened at Westover. I should've waited for you guys."

'"S okay, Percy. I probably would've done the same thing." She shifted from foot to foot, like she was trying to decide whether or not to say more. "You know, you asked about my mom and I kind of snapped at you. It's just… I went back to find her after seven years, and I found out she died in Los Angeles. She, um… she was a heavy drinker, and apparently, she was out driving late one night about two years ago, and…" Thalia blinked hard.

"I'm sorry."

"Yeah, well. It's… it's not like we were ever close. I ran away when I was ten. Best two years of my life were when I was running around with Luke and Annabeth. But still—"

"That's why you had trouble with the sun van."

She gave me a wary look. "What do you mean?"

"The way you stiffened up. You must've been thinking about your mom, not wanting to get behind the wheel."

I was sorry I'd said anything. Thalia's expression was dangerously close to Zeus's, the one time I'd seen him get angry—like any minute, her eyes would shoot a million volts.

"Yeah," she muttered. "Yeah, that must've been it."

She trudged off toward the court, where the Ares camper and the Hunter were trying to kill each other with a sword and a basketball.

The cabins were the weirdest collection of buildings you've ever seen. Zeus and Hera's big white-columned buildings, Cabins One and Two, stood in the middle, with five gods' cabins on the left and five goddesses' cabins on the right, so they all made a U around the central green and the barbecue hearth.

I made the rounds, telling everybody about capture the flag. I woke up some Ares kid from his midday nap and he yelled at me to go away. When I asked him where Clarisse was he said, "Went on a quest for Chiron. Top secret!"

"Is she okay?"

"Haven't heard from her in a month. She's missing in action. Like your butt's going to be if you don't get outta here!"

I decided to let him go back to sleep.

Finally I got to Cabin Three, the cabin of Poseidon. It was a low gray building hewn from sea stone, with shells and coral fossils imprinted in the rock. Inside, it was just as empty as always, except for my bunk. A Minotaur horn hung on the wall next to my pillow.

I took Annabeth's baseball cap out of my backpack and set it on my nightstand. I'd give it to her when I found her. And I would find her.

I took off my wristwatch and activated the shield. It creaked noisily as it spiraled out. Dr. Thorn's spikes had dented the brass in a dozen places. One gash kept the shield from opening all the way, so it looked like a pizza with two slices missing. The beautiful metal pictures that my brother had crafted were all banged up. In the picture of me and Annabeth fighting the Hydra, it looked like a meteor had made a crater in my head. I hung the shield on its hook, next to the Minotaur horn, but it was painful to look at now. Maybe Beckendorf from the Hephaestus cabin could fix it for me. He was the best armor smith in the camp. I'd ask him at dinner.

I was staring at the shield when I noticed a strange sound—water gurgling—and I realized there was something new in the room. At the back of the cabin was a big basin of gray sea rock, with a spout like the head of a fish carved in stone. Out of its mouth burst a stream of water, a saltwater spring that trickled into the pool. The water must've been hot, because it sent mist into the cold winter air like a sauna. It made the room feel warm and summery, fresh with the smell of the sea.

I stepped up to the pool. There was no note attached or anything, but I knew it could only be a gift from Poseidon.

I looked into the water and said, "Thanks, Dad."

The surface rippled. At the bottom of the pool, coins shimmered—a dozen or so golden drachma. I realized what the fountain was for. It was a reminder to keep in touch with my family.

I opened the nearest window, and the wintry sunlight made a rainbow in the mist. Then I fished a coin out of the hot water.

"Iris, O Goddess of the Rainbow," I said, "accept my offering."

I tossed a coin into the mist and it disappeared. Then I realized I didn't know who to contact first.

My mom? That would've been the "good son" thing to do, but she wouldn't be worried about me yet. She was used to me disappearing for days or weeks at a time.

My father? It had been way too long, almost two years, since I'd actually talked to him. But could you even send an Iris-message to a god? I'd never tried. Would it make them mad, like a sales call or something?

I hesitated. Then I made up my mind.

"Show me Tyson," I requested. "At the forges of the Cyclopes."

The mist shimmered, and the image of my half-brother appeared. He was surrounded in fire, which would've been a problem if he weren't a Cyclops. He was bent over an anvil, hammering a red-hot sword blade. Sparks flew and flames swirled around his body. There was a marble-framed window behind him, and it looked out onto dark blue water—the bottom of the ocean.

"Tyson!" I yelled.

He didn't hear me at first because of the hammering and the roar of the flames.

"TYSON!"

He turned, and his one enormous eye widened. His face broke into a crooked yellow grin. "Percy!"

He dropped the sword blade and ran at me, trying to give me a hug. The vision blurred and I instinctively lurched back. "Tyson, it's an Iris-message. I'm not really here."

"Oh." He came back into view, looking embarrassed. "Oh, I knew that. Yes."

"How are you?" I asked. "How's the job?"

His eye lit up. "Love the job! Look!" He picked up the hot sword blade with his bare hands. "I made this!"

"That's really cool."

"I wrote my name on it. Right there."

"Awesome. Listen, do you talk to Dad much?"

Tyson's smile faded. "Not much. Daddy is busy. He is worried about the war."

"What do you mean?"

Tyson sighed. He stuck the sword blade out the window, where it made a cloud of boiling bubbles. When Tyson brought it back in, the metal was cool. "Old sea spirits making trouble. Aigaios. Oceanus. Those guys."

I sort of knew what he was talking about. He meant the immortals who ruled the oceans back in the days of the Titans. Before the Olympians took over. The fact that they were back now, with the Titan Lord Kronos and his allies gaining strength, was not good.

"Is there anything I can do?" I asked.

Tyson shook his head sadly. "We are arming the mermaids. They need a thousand more swords by tomorrow." He looked at his sword blade and sighed. "Old spirits are protecting the bad boat."

"The Princess Andromeda?" I said. "Luke's boat?"

"Yes. They make it hard to find. Protect it from Daddy's storms. Otherwise he would smash it."

"Smashing it would be good."

Tyson perked up, as if he'd just had another thought. "Annabeth! Is she there?"

"Oh, well…" My heart felt like a bowling ball. Tyson thought Annabeth was just about the coolest thing since peanut butter (and he seriously loved peanut butter). I didn't have the heart to tell him she was missing or that Grover was too. He'd start crying so bad he'd probably put out his fires. "Well, no… she's not here right now."

"Tell her hello!" He beamed. "Hello to Annabeth!"

"Okay." I fought back a lump in my throat. "I'll do that."

"And, Percy, don't worry about the bad boat. It is going away."

"What do you mean?"

"Panama Canal! Very far away."

I frowned. Why would Luke take his demon-infested cruise ship all the way down there? The last time we'd seen him, he'd been cruising along the East Coast, recruiting half-bloods and training his monstrous army.

"All right," I said, not feeling reassured. "That's… good. I guess."

In the forges, a deep voice bellowed something I couldn't make out. Tyson flinched. "Got to get back to work! Boss will get mad. Good luck, Brother!"

"Okay, tell Dad—"

But before I could finish, the vision shimmered and faded. I was alone again in my cabin, feeling even lonelier than before.

I was pretty miserable at dinner that night.

I mean, the food was excellent as usual. You can't go wrong with barbecue, pizza, and never-empty soda goblets. The torches and braziers kept the outdoor pavilion warm, but we all had to sit with our cabin mates, which meant I was alone at the Poseidon table. Thalia sat alone at the Zeus table, but we couldn't sit together. Camp rules. At least the Hephaestus, Ares, and Hermes cabins had a few people each. Nico sat with the Stoll brothers, since new campers always got stuck in the Hermes cabin if their Olympian parent was unknown. The Stoll brothers seemed to be trying to convince Nico that poker was a much better game than Mythomagic. I hoped Nico didn't have any money to lose.

The only table that really seemed to be having a good time was the Artemis table. The Hunters drank and ate and laughed like one big happy family. Zoe sat at the head like she was the mama. She didn't laugh as much as the others, but she did smile from time to time. Her silver lieutenant's band glittered in the dark braids of her hair. I thought she looked a lot nicer when she smiled. Bianca di Angelo seemed to be having a great time. She was trying to learn how to arm wrestle from the big girl who'd picked a fight with the Ares kid on the basketball court. The bigger girl was beating her every time, but Bianca didn't seem to mind.

When we'd finished eating, Chiron made the customary toast to the gods and formally welcomed the Hunters of Artemis. The clapping was pretty half-hearted. Then he announced the "good will" capture-the-flag game for tomorrow night, which got a lot better reception.

Afterward, we all trailed back to our cabins for an early, winter lights out. I was exhausted, which meant I fell asleep easily. That was the good part. The bad part was, I had a nightmare, and even by my standards it was a whopper.

Annabeth was on a dark hillside, shrouded in fog. It almost seemed like the Underworld, because I immediately felt claustrophobic and I couldn't see the sky above—just a close, heavy darkness, as if I were in a cave.

Annabeth struggled up the hill. Old broken Greek columns of black marble were scattered around, as though something had blasted a huge building to rums. Grover was nowhere in sight which gave me a very uneasy feeling.

"Thorn!" Annabeth cried. "Where are you? Why did you bring me here?" She scrambled over a section of broken wall and came to the crest of the hill.

She gasped.

There was Luke. And he was in pain.

He was crumpled on the rocky ground, trying to rise. The blackness seemed to be thicker around him, fog swirling hungrily. His clothes were in tatters and his face was scratched and drenched with sweat,

"Annabeth!" he called. "Help me! Please!"

She ran forward.

I tried to cry out: He's a traitor! Don't trust him!

But my voice didn't work in the dream.

Annabeth had tears in her eyes. She reached down like she wanted to touch Luke's face, but at the last second, she hesitated.

"What happened?" she asked.

"They left me here," Luke groaned. "Please. It's killing me."

I couldn't see what was wrong with him. He seemed to be struggling against some invisible curse, as though the fog were squeezing him to death.

"Why should I trust you?" Annabeth asked. Her voice was filled with hurt.

"You shouldn't," Luke said. "I've been terrible to you. But if you don't help me, I'll die."

Let him die, I wanted to scream. Luke had tried to kill us in cold blood too many times. He didn't deserve anything from Annabeth.

Then the darkness above Luke began to crumble, like a cavern roof in an earthquake. Huge chunks of black rock began falling. Annabeth rushed in just as a crack appeared, and the whole ceiling dropped. She held it somehow—tons of rock. She kept it from collapsing on her and Luke just with her own strength. It was impossible. She shouldn't have been able to do that.

Luke rolled free, gasping. "Thanks," he managed.

"Help me hold it," Annabeth groaned.

Luke caught his breath. His face was covered in grime and sweat. He rose unsteadily.

"I knew I could count on you." He began to walk away as the trembling blackness threatened to crush Annabeth.

"HELP ME!" she pleaded,

"Oh, don't worry," Luke said. "Your help is on the way. It's all part of the plan. In the meantime, try not to die."

The ceiling of darkness began to crumble again, pushing Annabeth against the ground.

I sat bolt upright in bed, clawing at the sheets. There was no sound in my cabin except the gurgle of the saltwater spring. The clock on my nightstand read just after midnight.

Only a dream, but I was sure of two things: Annabeth was in terrible danger. And Luke was responsible.


	12. Chapter 12

**I'm sorry I haven't had chance to post in a long time but my Wi-Fi was down all summer as I've been on holiday and forgot to take my laptop. I'm not sure as to how often I will be posting but when I go back to school you can expect about 3-4 chapters a week. I'll say at the start of the chapter whether I'm at school or not so you know how many posts to expect. I might post one more chapter this summer but might leave it at this one. I hope you like and thanks for all the lovely reviews, I really appreciate it.**

The next morning after breakfast, I told Lara about my dream. We sat in the meadow watching the satyrs chase the wood nymphs through the snow. The nymphs had promised to kiss the satyrs if they got caught, but they hardly ever did. Usually the nymph would let the satyr get up a full head of steam, then she'd turn into a snow-covered tree and the poor satyr would slam into it headfirst and get a pile of snow dumped on him.

When I told Lara my nightmare, she started to fiddle with her charm bracelet.

"A cave ceiling collapsed on her?" she asked.

"Yeah. What the heck does that mean?"

Lara shook her head. "I don't know. But after what Zoe dreamed—"

"Whoa. What do you mean? Zoe had a dream like that?"

"I… I don't know, exactly. About three in the morning she came to the Big House and demanded to talk to Chiron. She looked really panicked."

"Wait, how do you know this?"

Lara grimaced. "I was sort of camped outside the Artemis cabin."

"What for?"

"I don't trust that they won't try to burn down any cabins, even if they were asleep."

"What about your sleep?"

"Non-relevant. Anyway, I followed her to the Big House and hid in a bush and watched the whole thing. She got real upset when Argus wouldn't let her in. It was kind of a dangerous scene."

I tried to imagine that. Argus was the head of security for camp—a big blond dude with eyes all over his body. He rarely showed himself unless something serious was going on. I wouldn't want to place bets on a fight between him and Zoe Nightshade.

"What did she say?" I asked.

Lara grinned. "Well, she starts talking really old-fashioned when she gets upset, so it was kind of hard to understand. It was funny though. She said something about Artemis being in trouble and needing the Hunters. And then she called Argus a boil-brained lout… I think that's a bad thing. And then he called her—"

"Whoa, wait. How could Artemis be in trouble?"

"I… well, finally Chiron came out in his pajamas and his horse tail in curlers and—"

"He wears curlers in his tail?"

Lara covered her mouth.

"Sorry," I said. "Go on."

"Well, Zoe said she needed permission to leave camp immediately. Chiron refused. He reminded Zoe that the Hunters were supposed to stay here until they received orders from Artemis. And she said…" Lara gulped. "She said 'How are we to get orders from Artemis if Artemis is lost?'"

"What do you mean lost? Like she needs directions?"

"No. I think she meant gone. Taken. Kidnapped."

"Kidnapped?" I tried to get my mind around that idea. "How would you kidnap an immortal goddess? Is that even possible?"

"Well, yeah. I mean, it happened to Persephone."

"But she was like, the goddess of flowers."

Lara looked offended. "Springtime."

"Whatever. Artemis is a lot more powerful than that. Who could kidnap her? And why?"

Lara shook her head miserably. "I don't know. Kronos?"

"He can't be that powerful already. Can he?"

The last time we'd seen Kronos, he'd been in tiny pieces. Well… we hadn't actually seen him. Thousands of years ago, after the big Titan—God war, the gods had sliced him to bits with his own scythe and scattered his remains in Tartarus, which is like the gods' bottomless recycling bin for their enemies. Two summers ago, Kronos had tricked us to the very edge of the pit and almost pulled us in. Then last summer, on board Luke's demon cruise ship, we'd seen a golden coffin, where Luke claimed he was summoning the Titan Lord out of the abyss, bit by bit, every time someone new joined their cause. Kronos could influence people with dreams and trick them, but I didn't see how he could physically overcome Artemis if he was still like a pile of evil bark mulch.

"I don't know," Lara said. "I think somebody would know if Kronos had re-formed. The gods would be more nervous. But still, it's weird, you having a nightmare the same night as Zoe. It's almost like—"

"They're connected," I said.

Over in the frozen meadow, a satyr skidded on his hooves as he chased after a redheaded tree nymph. She giggled and held out her arms as he ran toward her. Pop! She turned into a Scotch pine and he kissed the trunk at top speed,

"Idiots, when will they ever learn?" Lara asked rhetorically.

I thought about Zoe's nightmare, which she'd had only a few hours after mine.

"I've got to talk to Zoe," I said.

"Um, before you do…" Lara took something out of her coat pocket. It was a three-fold display like a travel brochure. "You remember what you said—about how it was weird the Hunters just happened to show up at Westover Hall? I think they might've been scouting us."

"Scouting us? What do you mean?"

She gave me the brochure. It was about the Hunters of Artemis. The front read, A WISE CHOICE FOR YOUR FUTURE! Inside were pictures of young maidens doing hunter stuff, chasing monsters, shooting bows. There were captions like: HEALTH BENEFITS: IMMORTALITY AND WHAT IT MEANS FOR YOU! and A BOY-FREE TOMORROW!

"I found that in Annabeth's backpack," Lara said.

I stared at her. "I don't understand."

"Well, it seems to me… maybe Annabeth was thinking about joining."

I'd like to say I took the news well.

The truth was, I wanted to strangle the Hunters of Artemis one eternal maiden at a time. The rest of the day I tried to keep busy, but I was worried sick about Annabeth. I went to javelin-throwing class, but the Ares camper in charge chewed me out after I got distracted and threw the javelin at the target before he got out of the way. I apologized for the hole in his pants, but he still sent me packing.

I visited the Pegasus stables, but Silena Beauregard from the Aphrodite cabin was having an argument with one of the Hunters, and I decided I'd better not get involved.

After that, I sat in the empty chariot stands and sulked. Down at the archery fields, Chiron was conducting target practice. I knew he'd be the best person to talk to. Maybe he could give me some advice, but something held me back. I had a feeling Chiron would try to protect me, like he always did. He might not tell me everything he knew.

I looked the other direction. At the top of Half-Blood Hill, Mr. D and Argus were feeding the baby dragon that guarded the Golden Fleece.

Then it occurred to me: no one would be in the Big House. There was someone else… something else I could ask for guidance.

My blood was humming in my ears as I ran into the house and took the stairs. I'd only done this once before, and I still had nightmares about it. I opened the trap door and stepped into the attic.

The room was dark and dusty and cluttered with junk, just like I remembered. There were shields with monster bites out of them, and swords bent in the shapes of daemon heads, and a bunch of taxidermy, like a stuffed harpy and a bright orange python.

Over by the window, sitting on a three-legged stool, was the shriveled-up mummy of an old lady in a tie-dyed hippie dress. The Oracle.

I made myself walk toward her. I waited for green mist to billow from the mummy's mouth, like it had before, but nothing happened.

"Hi," I said. "Uh, what's up?"

I winced at how stupid that sounded. Not much could be "up" when you're dead and stuck in the attic. But I knew the spirit of the Oracle was in there somewhere. I could feel a cold presence in the room, like a coiled sleeping snake.

"I have a question," I said a little louder. "I need to know about Annabeth. How can I save her?"

No answer. The sun slanted through the dirty attic window, lighting the dust motes dancing in the air.

I waited longer.

Then I got angry. I was being stonewalled by a corpse.

"All right," I said. "Fine. I'll figure it out myself."

I turned and bumped into a big table full of souvenirs. It seemed more cluttered than the last time I was here. Heroes stored all kinds of stuff in the attic: quest trophies they no longer wanted to keep in their cabins, or stuff that held painful memories. I knew Luke had stored a dragon claw somewhere up here—the one that had scarred his face.

There was a broken sword hilt labeled: This broke and Leroy got killed. 1999.

Then I noticed a pink silk scarf with a label attached to it. I picked up the tag and tried to read it:

SCARF OF THE GODDESS APHRODITE

RECOVERED AT WATERLAND, DENVER, CO.,

BY ANNABETH CHASE AND PERCY JACKSON

I stared at the scarf. I'd totally forgotten about it. Two years ago, Annabeth had ripped this scarf out of my hands and said something like, Oh, no. No love magic for you!

I'd just assumed she'd thrown it away. And yet here it was. She'd kept it all this time? And why had she stashed it in the attic?

I turned to the mummy. She hadn't moved, but the shadows across her face made it look like she was smiling gruesomely.

I dropped the scarf and tried not to run toward the exit.

That night after dinner, I was seriously ready to beat the Hunters at capture the flag. It was going to be a small game: only thirteen Hunters, including Bianca di Angelo, and about the same number of campers.

Zoe Nightshade looked pretty upset. She kept glancing resentfully at Chiron, like she couldn't believe he was making her do this. The other Hunters didn't look too happy, either. Unlike last night, they weren't laughing or joking around. They just huddled together in the dining pavilion, whispering nervously to each other as they strapped on their armor. Some of them even looked like they'd been crying. I guess Zoe had told them about her nightmare.

On our team, we had Beckendorf and two other Hephaestus guys, a few from the Ares cabin (though it still seemed strange that Clarisse wasn't around), the Stoll brothers and Nico from Hermes cabin, and a few Aphrodite kids. It was weird that the Aphrodite cabin wanted to play. Usually they sat on the sidelines, chatted, and checked their reflections in the river and stuff, but when they heard we were fighting the Hunters, they were raring to go.

"I'll show them 'love is worthless,'" Silena Beauregard grumbled as she strapped on her armor. "I'll pulverize them!"

That left Thalia, Lara and me.

"I'll take the offense with Lara," Thalia volunteered. "You take defense."

"Oh." I hesitated, because I'd been about to say the exact same thing, only reversed. "Don't you think with your shield and all, you'd be better defense?"

Thalia already had Aegis on her arm, and even our own teammates were giving her a wide berth, trying not to cower before the bronze head of Medusa.

"Well, I was thinking it would make better offense," Thalia said. "Besides, you've had more practice at defense."

I wasn't sure if she was teasing me. I'd had some pretty bad experiences with defense on capture the flag. My first year, Annabeth had put me out as a kind of bait, and I'd almost been gored to death with spears and killed by a hellhound.

"Yeah, no problem," I lied.

"Wow guys, way to bum the mood. A smile isn't as hard as you seem to think." Lara stated matter of factly.

"I'm smiling." Thalia turned to help some of the Aphrodite kids, who were having trouble suiting up their armor without breaking their nails. Nico di Angelo ran up to us with a big grin on his face.

"Guys, this is awesome!" His blue-feathered bronze helmet was falling in his eyes, and his breastplate was about six sizes too big. I wondered if there was any way I'd looked that ridiculous when I'd first arrived. Unfortunately, I probably had.

Nico lifted his sword with effort. "Do we get to kill the other team?"

"Well… no."

"But the Hunters are immortal, right?"

"That's only if they don't fall in battle. Besides—"

"It would be awesome if we just, like, resurrected as soon as we were killed, so we could keep fighting, and—"

"Hey Nico, just because we can't kill them doesn't mean we can't beat the crap out of them." Lara teased.

"Nico, this is serious. Real swords. These can hurt. And Lara, Chiron said no maiming."

"Chiron said no maiming." Lara mocked.

"Hey, are you mocking me? Don't walk away." And with that Lara left the scene.

Nico stared at me, a little disappointed, and I realized that I'd just sounded like my mother. Whoa. Not a good sign.

I patted Nico on the shoulder. "Hey, it's cool. Just follow the team. Stay out of Zoe's way. We'll have a blast."

Chiron's hoof thundered on the pavilion floor.

"Heroes!" he called. "You know the rules! The creek is the boundary line. Blue team—Camp Half-Blood—shall take the west woods. Hunters of Artemis—red team—shall take the east woods. I will serve as referee and battlefield medic. No intentional maiming, please! All magic items are allowed. To your positions!"

"Sweet," Nico whispered next to me. "What kind of magic items? Do I get one?"

I was about to break it to him that he didn't, when Thalia said, "Blue team! Follow me!"

They cheered and followed. I had to run to catch up, and tripped over somebody's shield, so I didn't look much like a co-captain. More like an idiot.

We set our flag at the top of Zeus's Fist. It's this cluster of boulders in the middle of the west woods that, if you look at it just the right way, looks like a huge fist sticking out of the ground. If you look at it from any other side, it looks like a pile of enormous deer droppings, but Chiron wouldn't let us call the place the Poop Pile, especially after it had been named for Zeus, who doesn't have much of a sense of humor.

Anyway, it was a good place to set the flag. The top boulder was twenty feet tall and really hard to climb, so the flag was clearly visible, like the rules said it had to be, and it didn't matter that the guards weren't allowed to stand within ten yards of it.

I set Nico on guard duty with Beckendorf and the Stoll brothers, figuring he'd be safely out of the way.

"We'll send out a decoy to the left," Thalia told the team. "Silena, you lead that."

"Got it!"

"Take Laurel and Jason. They're good runners. Make a wide arc around the Hunters, attract as many as you can. Lara and I will take the main raiding party around to the right and catch them by surprise."

Everybody nodded. It sounded good, and Thalia said it with such confidence you couldn't help but believe it would work.

Thalia looked at me. "Anything to add, Percy?"

"Um, yeah. Keep sharp on defense. We've got four guards, two scouts. That's not much for a big forest. I'll be roving. Yell if you need help."

"And don't leave your post!" Thalia said.

"Unless you see a golden opportunity," I added.

Thalia scowled. "Just don't leave your post."

"Right, unless—"

"Percy!" She touched my arm and shocked me. I mean, everybody can give static shocks in the winter, but when Thalia does, it hurts. I guess it's because her dad is the god of lightning. She's been known to fry off people's eyebrows.

"Sorry," Thalia said, though she didn't sound particularly sorry. "Now, is everybody clear?"

Everybody nodded. We broke into our smaller groups. The horn sounded, and the game began.

Silena's group disappeared into the woods on the left. Thalia and Lara's group gave it a few seconds, then darted off toward the right.

I waited for something to happen. I climbed Zeus's Fist and had a good view over the forest. I remembered how the Hunters had stormed out of the woods when they fought the manticore, and I was prepared for something like that—one huge charge that could overwhelm us. But nothing happened.

I caught a glimpse of Silena and her two scouts. They ran through a clearing, followed by five of the Hunters, leading them deep into the woods and away from Lara and Thalia. The plan seemed to be working. Then I spotted another clump of Hunters heading to the right, bows ready. They must've spotted Thalia and Lara.

"What's happening?" Nico demanded, trying to climb up next to me.

My mind was racing. Thalia would never get through, but the Hunters were divided. With that many on either flank, their center had to be wide open. If I moved fast…

I looked at Beckendorf. "Can you guys hold the fort?"

Beckendorf snorted. "Of course."

"I'm going in."

The Stoll brothers and Nico cheered as I raced toward the boundary line.

I was running at top speed and I felt great. I leaped over the creek into enemy territory. I could see their silver flag up ahead, only one guard, who wasn't even looking in my direction. I heard fighting to my left and right, somewhere in the woods. I had it made.

The guard turned at the last minute. It was Bianca di Angelo. Her eyes widened as I slammed into her and she went sprawling in the snow.

"Sorry!" I yelled. I ripped down the silver silk flag from the tree and took off.

I was ten yards away before Bianca managed to yell for help. I thought I was home free.

ZIP. A silvery cord raced across my ankles and fastened to the tree next to me. A trip wire, fired from a bow! Before I could even think about stopping, I went down hard, sprawling in the snow.

"Percy!" Thalia yelled, off to my left. "What are you doing?"

Before she reached me, an arrow exploded at her feet and a cloud of yellow smoke billowed around her team. They started coughing and gagging. I could smell the gas from across the woods—the horrible smell of sulfur.

"No fair!" Thalia gasped. "Fart arrows are unsportsmanlike!"

I got up and started running again. Only a few more yards to the creek and I had the game. More arrows whizzed past my ears. A Hunter came out of nowhere and slashed at me with her knife, but I parried and kept running.

I heard yelling from our side of the creek. Beckendorf and Nico were running toward me. I thought they were coming to welcome me back, but then I saw they were chasing someone—Zoe Nightshade, racing toward me like a cheetah, dodging campers with no trouble. And she had our flag in her hands.

"No!" I yelled, and poured on the speed.

I was two feet from the water when Zoe bolted across to her own side, slamming into me for good measure. The Hunters cheered as both sides converged on the creek. Chiron appeared out of the woods, looking grim. He had the Stoll brothers on his back, and it looked as if both of them had taken some nasty whacks to the head. Connor Stoll had two arrows sticking out of his helmet like antennae.

"The Hunters win!" Chiron announced without pleasure. Then he muttered, "For the fifty-sixth time in a row."

"Perseus Jackson!" Thalia yelled, storming toward me. She smelled like rotten eggs, and she was so mad that blue sparks flickered on her armor. Everybody cringed and backed up because of Aegis. It took all my willpower not to cower.

"What in the name of the gods were you THINKING?" Lara bellowed.

I balled my fists. I'd had enough bad stuff happen to me for one day. I didn't need this. "I got the flag, guys!" I shook it in their face. "I saw a chance and I took it!"

"I WAS AT THEIR BASE!" Thalia yelled. "But the flag was gone. If you hadn't butted in, we would've won."

"You had too many on you!"

"Oh, so it's my fault?"

"I didn't say that."

"Argh!" Thalia pushed me, and a shock went through my body that blew me backward ten feet into the water. Some of the campers gasped. A couple of the Hunters stifled laughs.

"Sorry!" Thalia said, turning pale. "I didn't mean to—"

"Guys, I know we lost but maybe you both need to cool off." Lara said helplessly.

Anger roared in my ears. A wave erupted from the creek, blasting into Thalia's face and dousing her from head to toe.

I stood up. "Yeah," I growled. "I didn't mean to, either. You cool yet?"

Lara cringed. "Should've seen that coming."

Thalia was breathing heavily.

"Enough!" Chiron ordered.

But Thalia held out her spear. "You want some, Seaweed Brain?"

Somehow, it was okay when Annabeth called me that—at least, I'd gotten used to it—but hearing it from Thalia was not cool.

"Bring it on, Pinecone Face!"

I raised Riptide, but before I could even defend myself, Thalia yelled, and a blast of lightning came down from the sky, hit her spear like a lightning rod, and slammed into my chest.

I sat down hard. There was a burning smell; I had a feeling it was my clothes.

"Thalia!" Chiron said. "That is enough!"

"Both of you. Stop!" Lara pleaded.

I got to my feet and willed the entire creek to rise. It swirled up, hundreds of gallons of water in a massive icy funnel cloud.

"Percy!" Chiron pleaded.

I was about to hurl it at Thalia when I saw something in the woods. I lost my anger and my concentration all at once. The water splashed back into the creek bed. Thalia was so surprised she turned to see what I was looking at.

Someone… something was approaching. It was shrouded in a murky green mist, but as it got closer, the campers and Hunters gasped.

"This is impossible," Chiron said. I'd never heard him sound so nervous. "It… she has never left the attic. Never."

And yet, the withered mummy that held the Oracle shuffled forward until she stood in the center of the group. Mist curled around our feet, turning the snow a sickly shade of green.

None of us dared move. Then her voice hissed inside my head. Apparently, everyone could hear it, because several clutched their hands over the ears.

I am the spirit of Delphi, the voice said. Speaker of the prophecies of Phoebus Apollo, slayer of the mighty Python.

The Oracle regarded me with its cold, dead eyes. Then she turned unmistakably toward Zoe Nightshade. Approach, Seeker, and ask.

Zoe swallowed. "What must I do to help my goddess?"

The Oracle's mouth opened, and green mist poured out. I saw the vague image of a mountain, and a girl standing at the barren peak. It was Artemis, but she was wrapped in chains, fettered to the rocks. She was kneeling, her hands raised as if to fend off an attacker, and it looked like she was in pain. The Oracle spoke:

Five shall go west to the goddess in chains,

One shall be lost in the land without rain,

The bane of Olympus shows the trail,

Campers and Hunters combined prevail,

The Titan's curse must one withstand,

And one shall perish by a parent's hand.

Then, as we were watching, the mist swirled and retreated like a great green serpent into the mummy's mouth. The Oracle sat down on a rock and became as still as she'd been in the attic, as if she might sit by this creek for a hundred years.


	13. Chapter 13

**I'm going to school again tomorrow so should update around 3-4 times a week.**

The least the Oracle could've done was walk back to the attic by herself.

Instead, Lara and I were elected to carry her. I didn't figure that was because we were the most popular.

"Watch her head!" Lara warned as we went up the stairs. But it was too late.

Bonk! I whacked her mummified face against the trapdoor frame and dust flew.

"Ah, man." I set her down and checked for damage. "Did I break anything?"

"I can't tell," Lara admitted. "Does it matter? She's dead anyway, right?"

We hauled her up and set her on her tripod stool, both of us huffing and sweating. Who knew a mummy could weigh so much?

I assumed she wouldn't talk to me, and I was right. I was relieved when we finally got out of there and slammed the attic door shut.

"Well," Lara said, "that was gross."

I knew she was trying to keep things light for my sake, but I still felt really down. The whole camp would be mad at me for losing the game to the Hunters, and then there was the new prophecy from the Oracle. It was like the spirit of Delphi had gone out of her way to exclude me. She'd ignored my question and walked half a mile to talk to Zoe. And she'd said nothing, not even a hint, about Annabeth.

"What will Chiron do?" I asked Lara.

"I wish I knew." She looked wistfully out the second-floor window at the rolling hills covered in snow. "I want to be out there."

"Searching for Annabeth?"

She had a little trouble focusing on me. Then she blushed. "Oh, right. That too. Of course."

"Why?" I asked. "What were you thinking?"

She wobbled on her feet uneasily whilst fiddling with her charm bracelet. She always seems to resort to that when she's nervous. I wonder who gave it to her? "Just something the manticore said, about the Great Stirring. I can't help but wonder… if all those ancient powers are waking up, maybe… maybe not all of them are evil."

"You mean Pan."

I felt kind of selfish, Grover was Lara's friend too and I'd totally forgotten about his life ambition. The nature god had gone missing two thousand years ago. He was rumored to have died, but the satyrs didn't believe that. They were determined to find him. They'd been searching in vain for centuries, and Grover was convinced he'd be the one to succeed. This year, with Chiron putting all the satyrs on emergency duty to find half-bloods, Grover hadn't been able to continue his search. It must've been driving him nuts.

"He let the trail go cold," she said. "Before...You know. He told me that he'd feel restless, like he's missing something really important. 'He's out there somewhere.' He would say. 'I can just feel it.'"

I didn't know what to say. I wanted to encourage her, but I didn't know how. My optimism had pretty much been trampled into the snow out there in the woods, along with our capture-the-flag hopes.

Before I could respond, Thalia tromped up the stairs. She was officially not talking to me now, but she looked at Lara and said, "Tell Percy to get his butt downstairs."

"Why?" I asked.

"Did he say something?" Thalia asked Lara.

"Um, he asked why."

"Dionysus is calling a council of cabin leaders to discuss the prophecy," she said. "Unfortunately, that includes Percy. You too by the way."

The council was held around a Ping-Pong table in the rec room. Dionysus waved his hand and supplied snacks: Cheez Whiz, crackers, and several bottles of red wine. Then Chiron reminded him that wine was against his restrictions and most of us were underage. Mr. D sighed. With a snap of his fingers the wine turned to Diet Coke. Nobody drank that either.

Mr. D and Chiron (in wheelchair form) sat at one end of the table. Zoe and Bianca di Angelo (who had kind of become Zoe's personal assistant) took the other end. Thalia and Lara and I sat along the right, and the other head councilors—Beckendorf, Silena Beauregard, and the Stoll brothers—sat on the left. The Ares kids were supposed to send a representative, too, but all of them had gotten broken limbs (accidentally) during capture the flag, courtesy of the Hunters. They were resting up in the infirmary.

Zoe started the meeting off on a positive note. "This is pointless."

"There is no time for talk," Zoe continued. "Our goddess needs us. The Hunters must leave immediately."

"And go where?" Chiron asked.

"West!" Bianca said. I was amazed at how different she looked after just a few days with the Hunters. Her dark hair was braided like Zoe's now, so you could actually see her face. She had a splash of freckles across her nose, and her dark eyes vaguely reminded me of someone famous, but I couldn't think who. She looked like she'd been working out, and her skin glowed faintly, like the other Hunters, as if she'd been taking showers in liquid moonlight. "You heard the prophecy. Five shall go west to the goddess in chains. We can get five hunters and go."

"Yes," Zoe agreed. "Artemis is being held hostage! We must find her and free her."

"You're missing something, as usual," Thalia said. "Campers and Hunters combined prevail. We're supposed to do this together."

"No!" Zoe said. "The Hunters do not need thy help."

"Your" Thalia grumbled. "Nobody has said thy in, like, three hundred years, Zoe. Get with the times."

Zoe hesitated, like she was trying to form the word correctly. " Yerrr. We do not need yerrr help."

Thalia rolled her eyes. "Forget it."

"I fear the prophecy says you do need our help," Chiron said. "Campers and Hunters must cooperate."

"Or do they?" Mr. D mused, swirling his Diet Coke under his nose like it had a fine bouquet. "One shall be lost. One shall perish. That sounds rather nasty, doesn't it? What if you fail because you try to cooperate?"

"Mr. D," Chiron sighed, "with all due respect, whose side are you on?"

Dionysus raised his eyebrows. "Sorry, my dear centaur. Just trying to be helpful."

"We're supposed to work together," Thalia said stubbornly. "I don't like it either, Zoe, but you know prophecies. You want to fight against one?"

Zoe grimaced, but I could tell Thalia had scored a point.

"We must not delay," Chiron warned. "Today is Sunday. This very Friday, December twenty-first, is the winter solstice."

"Oh, joy," Dionysus muttered. "Another dull annual meeting."

"Artemis must be present at the solstice," Zoe said. "She has been one of the most vocal on the council arguing for action against Kronos's minions. If she is absent, the gods will decide nothing. We will lose another year of war preparations."

"Are you suggesting that the gods have trouble acting together, young lady?" Dionysus asked.

"Yes, Lord Dionysus."

Mr. D nodded. "Just checking. You're right, of course. Carry on."

"I must agree with Zoe," said Chiron. "Artemis's presence at the winter council is critical. We have only a week to find her. And possibly even more important: to locate the monster she was hunting. Now, we must decide who goes on this quest."

"Three and two," I said.

Everybody looked at me. Thalia even forgot to ignore me.

"We're supposed to have five," I said, feeling self-conscious. "Three Hunters, two from Camp Half-Blood. That's more than fair."

Thalia and Zoe exchanged looks.

"Well," Thalia said. "It does make sense."

Zoe grunted. "I would prefer to take all the Hunters. We will need strength of numbers."

"You'll be retracing the goddess's path," Chiron reminded her. "Moving quickly. No doubt Artemis tracked the scent of this rare monster, whatever it is, as she moved west. You will have to do the same. The prophecy was clear: The bane of Olympus shows the trail. What would your mistress say? 'Too many Hunters spoil the scent.' A small group is best."

Zoe picked up a Ping-Pong paddle and studied it like she was deciding who she wanted to whack first. "This monster—the bane of Olympus. I have hunted at Lady Artemis's side for many years, yet I have no idea what this beast might be."

Everybody looked at Dionysus, I guess because he was the only god present and gods are supposed to know things. He was flipping through a wine magazine, but when everyone got silent he glanced up, "Well, don't look at me. I'm a young god, remember? I don't keep track of all those ancient monsters and dusty titans. They make for terrible party conversation."

"Chiron," I said, "you don't have any ideas about the monster?"

Chiron pursed his lips. "I have several ideas, none of them good. And none of them quite make sense. Typhon, for instance, could fit this description. He was truly a bane of Olympus. Or the sea monster Keto. But if either of these were stirring, we would know it. They are ocean monsters the size of skyscrapers. Your father, Poseidon, would already have sounded the alarm. I fear this monster may be more elusive. Perhaps even more powerful."

"That's some serious danger you're facing," Connor Stoll said. (I liked how he said you and not we.) "It sounds like at least two of the five are going to die."

"One shall be lost in the land without rain" Beckendorf said. "If I were you, I'd stay out of the desert."

There was a muttering of agreement.

"And the Titan's curse must one withstand," Silena said. "What could that mean?"

I saw Chiron and Zoe exchange a nervous look, but whatever they were thinking, they didn't share it.

"One shall perish by a parent's hand," Lara said. "How is that possible? Whose parent would kill them?"

There was heavy silence around the table.

I glanced at Thalia and wondered if she was thinking the same thing I was. Years ago, Chiron had had a prophecy about the next child of the Big Three—Zeus, Poseidon, or Hades—who turned sixteen. Supposedly, that kid would make a decision that would save or destroy the gods forever. Because of that, the Big Three had taken an oath after World War II not to have any more kids. But Thalia and I had been born anyway, and now we were both getting close to sixteen.

I remembered a conversation I'd had last year with Annabeth. I'd asked her, if I was so potentially dangerous, why the gods didn't just kill me.

Some of the gods would like to kill you, she'd said. But they're afraid of offending Poseidon.

Could an Olympian parent turn against his half-blood child? Would it sometimes be easier just to let them die? If there were ever any half-bloods who needed to worry about that, it was Thalia and me. I wondered if maybe I should've sent Poseidon that seashell pattern tie for Father's Day after all.

"There will be deaths," Chiron decided. "That much we know."

"Oh, goody!" Dionysus said.

Everyone looked at him. He glanced up innocently from the pages of Wine Connoisseur magazine. "Ah, pinot noir is making a comeback. Don't mind me."

"Percy is right," Silena Beauregard said. "Two campers should go."

"Oh, I see," Zoe said sarcastically. "And I suppose you wish to volunteer?"

Silena blushed. "I'm not going anywhere with the Hunters. Don't look at me!"

"A daughter of Aphrodite does not wish to be looked at," Zoe scoffed. "What would thy mother say?"

Silena started to get out of her chair, but the Stoll brothers pulled her back.

"Stop it," Beckendorf said. He was a big guy with a bigger voice. He didn't talk much, but when he did, people tended to listen. "Let's start with the Hunters. Which three of you will go?"

Zoe stood. "I shall go, of course, and I will take Phoebe. She is our best tracker."

"The big girl who likes to hit people on the head?" Travis Stoll asked cautiously.

Zoe nodded.

"The one who put the arrows in my helmet?" Connor added.

"Yes," Zoe snapped. "Why?"

"Oh, nothing," Travis said. "Just that we have a T-shirt for her from the camp store." He held up a big silver T-shirt that said ARTEMIS THE MOON GODDESS, FALL HUNTING TOUR 2002, with a huge list of national parks and stuff underneath. "It's a collector's item. She was admiring it. You want to give it to her?"

I knew the Stoll's were up to something. They always were. But I guess Zoe didn't know them as well as I did. She just sighed and took the T-shirt. "As I was saying, I will take Phoebe. And I wish Bianca to go."

Bianca looked stunned. "Me? But… I'm so new. I wouldn't be any good."

"You will do fine," Zoe insisted. "There is no better way to prove thyself."

Bianca closed her mouth. I felt kind of sorry for her. I remembered my first quest when I was twelve. I had felt totally unprepared. A little honored, maybe, but a lot resentful and plenty scared. I figured the same things were running around in Bianca's head right now.

"And for campers?" Chiron asked. His eyes met mine, but I couldn't tell what he was thinking.

"I'll go." Lara said without hesitation. "First time on an authorized quest. Should be fun."

Zoe wrinkled her nose. "I think not, you are more annoying than Thalia. And thy's last comment surely proves that you are irresponsible."

"But she is a camper," Thalia said. "And she's a great tracker. I remember from the days when we were on the run."

"I was alright I guess." Lara commented.

Zoe wavered. I didn't know how Lara could be a good tracker without being a satyr, but apparently Zoe thought it was a good thing.

"Very well," Zoe said. "And the second camper?"

"I'll go." Thalia stood and looked around, daring anyone to question her.

Now, okay, maybe my math skills weren't the best, but it suddenly occurred to me that we'd reached the number five, and I wasn't in the group. "Whoa, wait a sec," I said. "I want to go too."

Thalia said nothing. Chiron was still studying me, his eyes sad.

"I have to go," I said. "I need to be on this quest."

"Why?" Zoe asked. "Because of thy friend Annabeth?"

I felt myself blushing. I hated that everyone was looking at me. "No! I mean, partly. I just feel like I'm supposed to go!"

Nobody rose to my defense. Mr. D looked bored, still reading his magazine. Silena, the Stoll brothers, and Beckendorf were staring at the table. Bianca gave me a look of pity.

"No," Zoe said flatly. "I insist upon this. I will take these two excuses for heroes if I must, but not a male."

Chiron sighed. "The quest is for Artemis. The Hunters should be allowed to approve their companions."

My ears were ringing as I sat down. I knew Lara and some of the others were looking at me sympathetically, but I couldn't meet their eyes. I just sat there as Chiron concluded the council.

"So be it," he said. "Thalia and Lara will accompany Zoe, Bianca, and Phoebe. You shall leave at first light. And may the gods"—he glanced at Dionysus—"present company included, we hope—be with you."

I didn't show up for dinner that night, which was a mistake, because Chiron came looking for me.

Chiron sighed and knelt on his horse legs. "Percy, I don't pretend to understand prophecies."

"Yeah," I said. "Well, maybe that's because they don't make any sense."

Chiron gazed at the saltwater spring gurgling in the corner of the room. "Thalia would not have been my first choice to go on this quest. She's too impetuous. She acts without thinking. She is too sure of herself"

"Would you have chosen me?"

"Frankly, no," he said. "You and Thalia are much alike."

"Thanks a lot."

He smiled. "The difference is that you are less sure of yourself than Thalia. That could be good or bad. But one thing I can say: both of you together would be a dangerous thing."

"We could handle it."

"The way you handled it at the creek tonight?"

I didn't answer. He'd nailed me.

"Perhaps it is for the best," Chiron mused. "You can go home to your mother for the holidays. If we need you, we can call."

"Yeah," I said. "Maybe."

I pulled Riptide out of my pocket and set it on my nightstand. It didn't seem that I'd be using it for anything but writing Christmas cards.

When he saw the pen, Chiron grimaced. "It's no wonder Zoe doesn't want you along, I suppose. Not while you're carrying that particular weapon."

I didn't understand what he meant. Then I remembered something he'd told me a long time ago, when he first gave me the magic sword: It has a long and tragic history, which we need not go into.

I wanted to ask him about that, but then he pulled a golden drachma from his saddlebag and tossed it to me. "Call your mother, Percy. Let her know you're coming home in the morning. And, ah, for what it's worth… I almost volunteered for this quest myself. I would have gone, if not for the last line."

"One shall perish by a parent's hand. Yeah."

I didn't need to ask. I knew Chiron's dad was Kronos, the evil Titan Lord himself. The line would make perfect sense if Chiron went on the quest. Kronos didn't care for anyone, including his own children.

"Chiron," I said. "You know what this Titan's curse is, don't you?"

His face darkened. He made a claw over his heart and pushed outward—an ancient gesture for warding off evil. "Let us hope the prophecy does not mean what I think. Now, good night, Percy. And your time will come. I'm convinced of that. There's no need to rush."

He said your time the way people did when they meant your death. I didn't know if Chiron meant it that way, but the look in his eyes made me scared to ask.

I stood at the saltwater spring, rubbing Chiron's coin in my hand and trying to figure out what to say to my mom. I really wasn't in the mood to have one more adult tell me that doing nothing was the greatest thing I could do, but I figured my mom deserved an update.

Finally, I took a deep breath and threw in the coin. "O goddess, accept my offering."

The mist shimmered. The light from the bathroom was just enough to make a faint rainbow.

"Show me Sally Jackson," I said. "Upper East Side, Manhattan."

And there in the mist was a scene I did not expect. My mom was sitting at our kitchen table with some… guy. They were laughing hysterically. There was a big stack of textbooks between them. The man was, I don't know, thirty-something, with longish salt-and-pepper hair and a brown jacket over a black T-shirt. He looked like an actor—like a guy who might play an undercover cop on television.

I was too stunned to say anything, and fortunately, my mom and the guy were too busy laughing to notice my Iris-message.

The guy said, "Sally, you're a riot. You want some more wine?"

"Ah, I shouldn't. You go ahead if you want."

"Actually, I'd better use your bathroom. May I?"

"Down the hall," she said, trying not to laugh.

The actor dude smiled and got up and left.

"Mom!" I said.

She jumped so hard she almost knocked her textbooks off the table. Finally, she focused on me. "Percy! Oh, honey! Is everything okay?"

"What are you doing?" I demanded.

She blinked. "Homework." Then she seemed to understand the look on my face. "Oh, honey, that's just Paul—um, Mr. Blofis. He's in my writing seminar."

"Mr. Blowfish?"

"Blofis. He'll be back in a minute, Percy. Tell me what's wrong."

She always knew when something was wrong. I told her about Annabeth. The other stuff too, but mostly it boiled down to Annabeth.

My mother's eyes teared up. I could tell she was trying hard to keep it together for my sake. "Oh, Percy…"

"Yeah. So, they tell me there's nothing I can do. I guess I'll be coming home."

She turned her pencil around in her fingers. "Percy, as much as I want you to come home"—she sighed like she was mad at herself—"as much as I want you to be safe, I want you to understand something. You need to do whatever you think you have to."

I stared at her. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, do you really, deep down, believe that you have to help save her? Do you think it's the right thing to do? Because I know one thing about you, Percy. Your heart is always in the right place. Listen to it."

"You're… you're telling me to go?"

My mother pursed her lips. "I'm telling you that… you're getting too old for me to tell you what to do. I'm telling you that I'll support you, even if what you decide to do is dangerous. I can't believe I'm saying this."

"Mom—"

The toilet flushed down the hall in our apartment.

"I don't have much time," my mom said. "Percy, whatever you decide, I love you. And I know you'll do what's best for Annabeth."

"How can you be sure?"

"Because she'd do the same for you."

And with that, my mother waved her hand over the mist, and the connection dissolved, leaving me with one final image of her new friend, Mr. Blowfish, smiling down at her.

I don't remember falling asleep, but I remember the dream.

I was back in that barren cave, the ceiling heavy and low above me. Annabeth was kneeling under the weight of a dark mass that looked like a pile of boulders. She was too tired even to cry out. Her legs trembled. Any second, I knew she would run out of strength and the cavern ceiling would collapse on top of her.

"How is our mortal guest?" a male voice boomed.

It wasn't Kronos. Kronos's voice was raspy and metallic, like a knife scraped across stone. I'd heard it taunting me many times before in my dreams. But this voice was deeper and lower, like a bass guitar. Its force made the ground vibrate.

Luke emerged from the shadows. He ran to Annabeth, knelt beside her, then looked back at the unseen man. "She's fading. We must hurry."

The hypocrite. Like he really cared what happened to her.

The deep voice chuckled. It belonged to someone in the shadows, at the edge of my dream. Then a meaty hand thrust someone forward into the light—Artemis—her hands and feet bound in celestial bronze chains.

I gasped. Her silvery dress was torn and tattered. Her face and arms were cut in several places, and she was bleeding ichor, the golden blood of the gods.

"You heard the boy," said the man in the shadows. "Decide!"

Artemis's eyes flashed with anger. I didn't know why she just didn't will the chains to burst, or make herself disappear, but she didn't seem able to. Maybe the chains prevented her, or some magic about this dark, horrible place.

The goddess looked at Annabeth and her expression changed to concern and outrage. "How dare you torture a maiden like this!"

"She will die soon," Luke said. "You can save her."

Annabeth made a weak sound of protest. My heart felt like it was being twisted into a knot. I wanted to run to her, but I couldn't move.

"Free my hands," Artemis said.

Luke brought out his sword, Backbiter. With one expert strike, he broke the goddess's handcuffs.

Artemis ran to Annabeth and took the burden from her shoulders. Annabeth collapsed on the ground and lay there shivering. Artemis staggered, trying to support the weight of the black rocks.

The man in the shadows chuckled. "You are as predictable as you were easy to beat, Artemis."

"You surprised me," the goddess said, straining under her burden. "It will not happen again."

"Indeed it will not," the man said. "Now you are out of the way for good! I knew you could not resist helping a young maiden. That is, after all, your specialty, my dear."

Artemis groaned "You know nothing of mercy, you swine."

"On that," the man said, "we can agree. Luke, you may kill the girl now."

"No!'" Artemis shouted.

Luke hesitated. "She—she may yet be useful, sir. Further bait."

"Bah! You truly believe that?"

"Yes, General. They will come for her. I'm sure."

The man considered. "Then the dracaenae can guard her here. Assuming she does not die from her injuries, you may keep her alive until winter solstice. After that, if our sacrifice goes as planned, her life will be meaningless. The lives of all mortals will be meaningless. And as of the satyr, I don't think it's safe to keep him much longer. His efforts to contact that demigod have become stronger. After the winter solstice, he shall perish along with his friend."

Luke gathered up Annabeth's listless body and carried her away from the goddess.

"You will never find the monster you seek," Artemis said. "Your plan will fail."

"How little you know, my young goddess," the man in the shadows said. "Even now, your darling attendants begin their quest to find you. They shall play directly into my hands. Now, if you'll excuse us, we have a long journey to make. We must greet your Hunters and make sure their quest is… challenging."

The man's laughter echoed in the darkness, shaking the ground until it seemed the whole cavern ceiling would collapse.

I woke with a start. I was sure I'd heard a loud banging. I looked around the cabin. It was dark outside. The salt spring still gurgled. No other sounds but the hoot of an owl in the woods and the distant surf on the beach. In the moonlight, on my nightstand was Annabeth's New York Yankees cap. I stared at it for a second and then: BANG BANG.

Someone, or something, was pounding on my door. I grabbed Riptide and got out of bed.

"Hello?" I called. THUMP. THUMP.I crept to the door.

I uncapped the blade, flung open the door, and found myself face-to-face with a black Pegasus.

Whoa, boss! Its voice spoke in my mind as it clopped away from the sword blade. I don't want to be a horse-ke-bob!

Its black wings spread in alarm, and the wind buffeted me back a step,

"Blackjack," I said, relieved but a little irritated. "It's the middle of the night!"

Blackjack huffed. Aint either, boss. It's five in the morning. What you still sleeping for?

"How many times have I told you? Don't call me boss."

Whatever you say, boss. You're the man. You're my number one. I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and tried not to let the Pegasus read my thoughts. That's the problem with being Poseidon's son: since he created horses out of sea foam, I can understand most equestrian animals, but they can understand me, too. Sometimes, like in Blackjacks case, they kind of adopt me.

See, Blackjack had been a captive on board Luke's ship last summer, until we'd caused a little distraction that allowed him to escape. I'd really had very little to do with it, seriously, but Blackjack credited me with saving him.

"Blackjack," I said, "you're supposed to stay in the stables."

Meh, the stables. You see Chiron staying in the stables?

"Well… no."

Exactly. Listen, we got another little sea friend needs your help.

"Again?"

Yeah. I told the hippocampi I'd come get you.

I groaned. Anytime I was anywhere near the beach, the hippocampi would ask me to help them with their problems. And they had a lot of problems. Beached whales, porpoises caught in fishing nets, mermaids with hangnails—they'd call me to come underwater and help.

"All right," I said. "I'm coming."

You're the best, boss.

"And don't call me boss!"

Blackjack whinnied softly. It might've been a laugh.

I looked back at my comfortable bed. My bronze shield still hung on the wall, dented and unusable. And on my nightstand, was Annabeth's magic Yankees cap. On an impulse, I stuck the cap in my pocket. I guess I had a feeling, even then, that I wasn't coming back to my cabin for a long, long time.


	14. Chapter 14

Blackjack gave me a ride down the beach, and I have to admit it was cool. Being on a flying horse, skimming over the waves at a hundred miles an hour with the wind in my hair and the sea spray in my face—hey, it beats waterskiing any day.

Here. Blackjack slowed and turned in a circle. Straight down.

"Thanks." I tumbled off his back and plunged into the icy sea.

I'd gotten more comfortable doing stunts like that the past couple of years. I could pretty much move however I wanted to underwater, just by willing the ocean currents to change around me and propel me along, I could breathe underwater, no problem, and my clothes never got wet unless I wanted them to.

I shot down into the darkness.

Twenty, thirty, forty feet. The pressure wasn't uncomfortable. I'd never tried to push it—to see if there was a limit to how deep I could dive. I knew most regular humans couldn't go past two hundred feet without crumpling like an aluminum can. I should've been blind, too, this deep in the water at night, but I could see the heat from living forms, and the cold of the currents. It's hard to describe. It wasn't like regular seeing, but I could tell where everything was.

As I got closer to the bottom, I saw three hippocampi—fish-tailed horses—swimming in a circle around an overturned boat. The hippocampi were beautiful to watch. Their fish tails shimmered in rainbow colors, glowing phosphorescent. Their manes were white, and they were galloping through the water the way nervous horses do in a thunderstorm. Something was upsetting them.

I got closer and saw the problem. A dark shape—some kind of animal—was wedged halfway under the boat and tangled in a fishing net, one of those big nets they use on trawlers to catch everything at once. I hated those things. It was bad enough they drowned porpoises and dolphins, but they also occasionally caught mythological animals. When the nets got tangled, some lazy fishermen would just cut them loose and let the trapped animals die.

Apparently this poor creature had been mucking around on the bottom of Long Island Sound and had somehow gotten itself tangled in the net of this sunken fishing boat. It had tried to get out and managed to get even more hopelessly stuck, shifting the boat in the process. Now the wreckage of the hull, which was resting against a big rock, was teetering and threatening to collapse on top of the tangled animal.

The hippocampi were swimming around frantically, wanting to help but not sure how. One was trying to chew the net, but hippocampi teeth just aren't meant for cutting rope. Hippocampi are really strong, but they don't have hands, and they're not (shhh) all that smart.

Free it, lord! A hippocampus said when it saw me. The others joined in, asking the same thing.

I swam in for a closer look at the tangled creature. At first, I thought it was a young hippocampus. I'd rescued several of them before. But then I heard a strange sound, something that did not belong underwater:

"Mooooooo!"

I got next to the thing and saw that it was a cow. I mean… I'd heard of sea cows, like manatees and stuff, but this really was a cow with the back end of a serpent. The front half was a calf—a baby, with black fur and big, sad brown eyes and a white muzzle—and its back half was a black-and-brown snaky tail with fins running down the top and bottom, like an enormous eel.

"Whoa, little one," I said. "Where did you come from?"

The creature looked at me sadly. "Moooo!"

But I couldn't understand its thoughts. I only speak horse.

We don't know what it is, lord, one of the hippocampi said. Many strange things are stirring.

"Yeah," I murmured. "So I've heard."

I uncapped Riptide, and the sword grew to full length in my hands, its bronze blade gleaming in the dark.

The cow serpent freaked out and started struggling against the net, its eyes full of terror. "Whoa!" I said. "I'm not going to hurt you! Just let me cut the net."

But the cow serpent thrashed around and got even more tangled. The boat started to tilt, stirring up the muck on the sea bottom and threatening to topple onto the cow serpent. The hippocampi whinnied in a panic and thrashed in the water, which didn't help.

"Okay, okay!" I said. I put away the sword and started speaking as calmly as I could so the hippocampi and the cow serpent would stop panicking. I didn't know if it was possible to get stampeded underwater, but I didn't really want to find out. "It's cool. No sword. See? No sword. Calm thoughts. Sea grass. Mama cows. Vegetarianism."

I doubted the cow serpent understood what I was saying, but it responded to the tone of my voice. The hippocampi were still skittish, but they stopped swirling around me quite so fast.

Free it, lord! they pleaded.

"Yeah," I said. "I got that part. I'm thinking."

But how could I free the cow serpent when she (I decided it was probably a "she") panicked at the sight of a blade? It was like she'd seen swords before and knew how dangerous they were.

"All right," I told the hippocampi. "I need all of you to push exactly the way I tell you."

First we started with the boat. It wasn't easy, but with the strength of three horsepower, we managed to shift the wreckage so it was no longer threatening to collapse on the baby cow serpent. Then I went to work on the net, untangling it section by section, getting lead weights and fishing hooks straightened out, yanking out knots around the cow serpent's hooves. It took forever—I mean, it was worse than the time I'd had to untangle all my video game controller wires. The whole time, I kept talking to the cow fish, telling her everything was okay while she mooed and moaned.

"It's okay, Bessie," I said. Don't ask me why I started calling her that. It just seemed like a good cow name. "Good cow. Nice cow."

Finally, the net came off and the cow serpent zipped through the water and did a happy somersault.

The hippocampi whinnied with joy. Thank you, lord!

"Moooo!"The cow serpent nuzzled me and gave me the big brown eyes.

"Yeah," I said. "That's okay. Nice cow. Well… stay out of trouble."

Which reminded me, I'd been underwater how long? An hour, at least. I had to get back to my cabin before Argus or the harpies discovered I was breaking curfew.

I shot to the surface and broke through. Immediately, Blackjack zoomed down and let me catch hold of his neck. He lifted me into the air and took me back toward the shore.

Success, boss?

"Yeah. We rescued a baby… something or other. Took forever. Almost got stampeded."

Good deeds are always dangerous, boss. You saved my sorry mane, didn't you?

I couldn't help thinking about my dream, with Annabeth crumpled and lifeless in Luke's arms. Here I was rescuing baby monsters, but I couldn't save my friend.

As Blackjack flew back toward my cabin, I happened to glance at the dining pavilion. I saw a figure—a boy hunkered down behind a Greek column, like he was hiding from someone.

It was Nico, but it wasn't even dawn yet. Nowhere near time for breakfast. What was he doing up there?

I hesitated. The last thing I wanted was more time for Nico to tell me about his Mythomagic game. But something was wrong. I could tell by the way he was crouching.

"Blackjack," I said, "set me down over there, will you? Behind that column."

I almost blew it.

I was coming up the steps behind Nico. He didn't see me at all. He was behind a column, peeking around the corner, all his attention focused on the dining area. I was five feet away from him, and I was about to say What are you doing? real loud, when it occurred to me that he was pulling a Grover: he was spying on the Hunters.

There were voices—two girls talking at one of the dining tables. At this ungodly hour of the morning? Well, unless you're the goddess of dawn, I guess.

I took Annabeth's magic cap out of my pocket and put it on.

I didn't feel any different, but when I raised my arms I couldn't see them. I was invisible.

I crept up to Nico and sneaked around him. I couldn't see the girls very well in the dark, but I knew their voices: Zoe and Bianca. It sounded like they were arguing.

"It cannot be cured," Zoe was saying. "Not quickly, at any rate."

"But how did it happen?" Bianca asked.

"A foolish prank," Zoe growled. "Those Stoll boys from the Hermes cabin. Centaur blood is like acid. Everyone knows that. They sprayed the inside of that Artemis Hunting Tour T-shirt with it."

"That's terrible!"

"She will live," Zoe said. "But she'll be bedridden for weeks with horrible hives. There is no way she can go. It's up to me… and thee."

"But the prophecy," Bianca said. "If Phoebe can't go, we only have four. We'll have to pick another."

"There is no time," Zoe said. "We must leave at first light. That's immediately. Besides, the prophecy said we would lose one."

"In the land without rain," Bianca said, "but that can't be here."

"It might be," Zoe said, though she didn't sound convinced. "The camp has magic borders. Nothing, not even weather, is allowed in without permission. It could be a land without rain."

"But—"

"Bianca, hear me." Zoe's voice was strained. "I… I can't explain, but I have a sense that we should not pick someone else. It would be too dangerous. They would meet an end worse than Phoebe's. I don't want Chiron choosing a camper as our fifth companion. And… I don't want to risk another Hunter."

Bianca was silent. "You should tell Thalia the rest of your dream."

"No. It would not help."

"But if your suspicions are correct, about the General—"

"I have thy word not to talk about that," Zoe said. She sounded really anguished. "We will find out soon enough. Now come. Dawn is breaking."

Nico scooted out of their way. He was faster than me.

As the girls sprinted down the steps, Zoe almost ran into me. She froze, her eyes narrowing. Her hand crept toward her bow, but then Bianca said, "The lights of the Big House are on. Hurry!"

And Zoe followed her out of the pavilion.

I could tell what Nico was thinking. He took a deep breath and was about to run after his sister when I took off the invisibility cap and said, "Wait."

He almost slipped on the icy steps as he spun around to find me. "Where did you come from?"

"I've been here the whole time. Invisible."

He mouthed the word invisible. "Wow. Cool."

"How did you know Zoe and your sister were here?"

He blushed. "I heard them walk by the Hermes cabin. I don't… I don't sleep too well at camp. So, I heard footsteps, and them whispering. And so, I kind of followed."

"And now you're thinking about following them on the quest," I guessed.

"How did you know that?"

"Because if it was my sister, I'd probably be thinking the same thing. But you can't."

He looked defiant. "Because I'm too young?"

"Because they won't let you. They'll catch you and send you back here. And… yeah, because you're too young. You remember the manticore? There will be lots more like that. More dangerous. Some of the heroes will die."

His shoulders sagged. He shifted from foot to foot. "Maybe you're right. But, but you can go for me."

"Say what?"

"You can turn invisible. You can go!"

"The Hunters don't like boys," I reminded him. "If they find out—"

"Don't let them find out. Follow them invisibly. Keep an eye on my sister! You have to. Please?"

"Nico—"

"You're planning to go anyway, aren't you?"

I wanted to say no. But he looked me in the eyes, and I somehow couldn't lie to him.

"Yeah," I said. "I have to find Annabeth. I have to help, even if they don't want me to."

"I won't tell on you," he said. "But you have to promise to keep my sister safe."

"I… that's a big thing to promise, Nico, on a trip like this. Besides, she's got Zoe, Lara, and Thalia—"

"Promise," he insisted.

"I'll do my best. I promise that."

"Get going, then!" he said. "Good luck!"

It was crazy. I wasn't packed. I had nothing but the cap and the sword and the clothes I was wearing. I was supposed to be going home to Manhattan this morning. "Tell Chiron—"

"I'll make something up." Nico smiled crookedly. "I'm good at that. Go on!"

I ran, putting on Annabeth's cap. As the sun came up, I turned invisible. I hit the top of Half-Blood Hill in time to see the camp's van disappearing down the farm road, probably Argus taking the quest group into the city. After that they would be on their own.

I felt a twinge of guilt, and stupidity, too. How was I supposed to keep up with them? Run?

Then I heard the beating of huge wings. Blackjack landed next to me. He began casually nuzzling a few tufts of grass that stuck through the ice.

If I was guessing, boss, I'd say you need a getaway horse. You interested?

A lump of gratitude stuck in my throat, but I managed to say, "Yeah. Let's fly."


End file.
